Sunday, 17 May 2026 by Sagacity

The England Fire of 1974

Plain City, Weber County, Utah is not a place that conjures images of billion-dollar industries. Its name suggests modesty, and its streets deliver on that promise — quiet fields, small farms, and houses set back from roads that run straight and flat through Weber County. There is substantial residential development in the past two decades. Even then, this small town produced a remarkable concentration of American transportation entrepreneurial energy. At the center of it stands one man: Chester Rodney England.

When a fire consumed Chester’s lumber yard on the evening of 6 April 1974, his neighbors rose to defend him to allow him to rebuild. Among those neighbors were my grandparents, Milo and Gladys Ross. What they did in the weeks that followed is documented below — eight pages of signatures collected on lumber yard estimate forms, a newspaper clipping, and a typed petition text. This post tells the story behind those pages.

Chester and Maude

Chester Rodney England was born 12 November 1896 in Plain City to William and Ismelda Thueson England. He grew up there, attended Weber Academy, and in 1916 married Maude Vivian Knight — a Plain City girl herself, born in August 1897. One month after their marriage, Chester received a mission call to the Southern States. He was set apart on 5 December 1916 by Apostle Anthony W. Ivins and left his new bride on 6 December 1916, serving for two years. He returned to find Utah in the grip of the 1918 influenza epidemic, his wife under quarantine, and her sister Elizabeth Knight Ericson dead. His mother was also ill, and he spent a week with his aunt Laura England before he could be with his family.

Chester wrote his own history late in life, and his voice is direct. After the mission he worked at the Amalgamated Sugar factory, farmed through the winters, bought a small Ford truck, and began hauling produce to the stores up through Cache Valley. “I found I could make more money doing this than farming,” he wrote, “so I turned the farm back to my father.” On 24 October 1919, his first son, Eugene Knight England, was born in Ogden. On 6 March 1923, his second son, William Knight England, followed. Two daughters, Rosemary and Carol, completed the family.

In 1924 the Weber Central Dairy Association organized and asked for bids to truck milk from the dairymen into the dairy on 19 Washington Boulevard in Ogden. Chester submitted his bid, was accepted, and trucked the first load. He delivered milk in the morning and hauled potatoes up through Cache Valley in the afternoon. Gene and Bill grew up in the business. During summers Chester took them along on the long hauls, building a shelf of boxes out from the cab seat so they could nap on the road. He made sure they always had a bottle of pop at each stop.

During World War II, while Gene and Bill served in the military, Chester hauled Mexican bananas coming into the country at El Paso, Texas, distributing them throughout Utah. Gene served in the 77th Infantry Division at Okinawa, earning the Bronze Star for crawling under fire to drag a wounded soldier to safety — 129 men went up to the escarpment, 27 came back after 72 hours. Bill served in the Air Force in the Philippine Islands from 1943 to 1946. The two brothers found each other on Cebu using a coded letter — Gene had written his middle initial as “B” to signal his location — and Bill arrived with a mattress, making Gene the only man in his division sleeping on something other than a canvas cot. A letter written from the Hotel Keystone in San Diego in May 1946 — Chester on the road at age 49 — gives a picture of those years on the home front. He writes to his wife about a load of bananas, his plans to buy a semi-trailer, and his satisfaction that Gene and Bill are doing well.

Shortly after their return from service, Gene and Bill joined Chester hauling produce. Their first postwar hauls included lumber from Oregon back to Utah, and it was that trade that gave the family firsthand knowledge of the lumber market. The first diesel truck — a used 1940 Kenworth conventional — was purchased during this period. As the business grew, the company also ran two packing sheds and a storage facility for Idaho potatoes at its peak. Around 1957, an unforeseen change in the potato hauling market prompted Gene and Bill to file applications for ICC licenses to haul all kinds of freight, opening an entirely new range of products and geographic lanes. That same year, C.R. England offered 72-hour coast-to-coast service, the first such offering available to American shippers. The first trip east was made by driver Robert Gould in a new 1959 Kenworth, tractor number 17, hauling produce from California to Philadelphia.

In the 1950s Chester stepped back from trucking, leaving Gene and Bill to run what had become C.R. England & Sons. He returned his attention to Plain City. As he wrote: “Our sons retired me from C.R. England & Sons so I started building homes on our property in Plain City. I soon decided I needed a lumber yard if I was going to continue to build. In 1960 I built a lumber yard on the property just west of the home we had sold.” The family’s years hauling lumber from Oregon had given Chester intimate knowledge of the lumber trade, and that knowledge informed the decision. He built three homes on adjacent property and sold them to Keith Lund, Ray Cottle, and Blaine Gibson. He built 25 homes in Plain City and many others throughout Weber County. He built a 12-unit apartment complex in Roy. He took second mortgages from young couples who could not otherwise buy. “It was a great satisfaction to have young couples come and tell me they would never have bought their homes without my help,” he wrote.

Maude was with him through all of it. Born in Plain City in August 1897, she never really left. She served as president of the Plain City Primary, held positions in the Relief Society throughout her life, and attended the Ogden Temple with Chester twice a week when they could manage it. She died in Plain City on 12 February 1982, having lived there her entire 84 years. Chester moved to Salt Lake City after her death and died there on 5 January 1989. He is buried beside her in Plain City Cemetery.

The Sugar Factory

The sugar factory was woven into both families long before the fire. The Amalgamated Sugar Company plant at Wilson Lane, just south of Plain City, was one of the economic anchors of Weber County from the early twentieth century onward. Plain City farmers hauled beets to the rail dumps each fall for decades; the railroad that came to Plain City in 1909 arrived largely to move beet cars to that factory. Chester England worked at the sugar factory himself after returning from his mission in late 1918, spending two winters there before he turned to farming and then trucking.

Milo’s father, John “Jack” Ross, worked for Amalgamated Sugar much of his adult life, following the company between its Ogden, Burley, and Paul, Idaho plants as work demanded. That movement accounts for the geography of the Ross children: Milo was born in Plain City in 1921, his brother Paul born in the town of Paul, Idaho in 1922, and Harold born in Burley in 1924. Amalgamated Sugar built its Paul factory in 1917, and families from the Plain City area followed the work north. The factory experienced difficult early years — a postwar agricultural depression after World War I, and then the beet leafhopper blight that devastated crops through the 1920s and into the 1930s — but it survived to become, in time, the largest sugarbeet processing facility in the world. Chester England and Jack Ross were contemporaries who had worked for the same company in the same corner of northern Utah before either of them had settled into the lives their families would remember them by. For more on the sugar factory’s role in Plain City’s history, see History of Plain City Pt. 1.

The Cradle of American Trucking

Chester England’s 1920 Model T purchase was the seed of something considerably larger than one family’s business. Four major American trucking companies trace their origins directly to Plain City, and all four connect back to Chester. The Standard-Examiner and C.R. England’s own history have documented this story in detail.

C.R. England & Sons grew steadily through the postwar decades into one of the largest refrigerated carriers in the United States, eventually operating a fleet approaching 4,000 trucks and headquartered in Salt Lake City. Gene England served as president of the company well into his later years, still coming into the office daily at age 88. He died on 13 November 2024 at the age of 105. Bill England, who married Fern Hadley — a Plain City Hadley, the same family that signed the petition — died on 28 March 2018 at age 95. He spent his last ten years without sight but maintained, as his family recorded, an extraordinary optimism throughout. He entitled his life history “It Is As Good As It Gets.”

Carl Moyes had driven trucks for C.R. England in his younger years. In the late 1950s, Carl and his wife Betty started B&C Truck Leasing in Plain City. In 1966, when their son Jerry graduated from Weber State College, the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona and formed the company that would eventually become Swift Transportation — for many years the largest truckload carrier in the United States. Jerry Moyes later observed that he liked to say there was “diesel in the water” in Plain City, and that the people there were conceived in sleeper cabs.

In 1990, brothers Kevin and Keith Knight and their cousins Randy and Gary Knight left Swift to found Knight Transportation. All four had grown up in Plain City and gotten their start working for the Moyes family’s Swift Transportation. The Knights were also related to Maude Knight, who had married Chester England in 1916, making them family to the man who started the Plain City trucking tradition. Knight Transportation started with five trucks; four years after going public the company had between 250 and 300. Knight and Swift announced a merger in April 2017, creating Knight-Swift Transportation, valued at an estimated $5 billion with approximately 23,000 tractors and 77,000 trailers.

In 1976, Jeff England — Gene’s oldest son and Chester’s grandson — bought his first truck while still working at C.R. England as an owner-operator, initially under the name “Pride of England Enterprises.” In 1979, with three trucks and a haul contract moving produce from California to New York, he left the family firm to go fully independent. His wife Pat was his partner from the beginning. In the early 1980s he assembled a group of investors, purchased ten more trucks, and rebranded as Pride Transport Inc. By 2017 the company operated a fleet of 500 trucks. In 2012 Jeff passed ownership to his son Jay England. Jeff England said of his decision to leave: “I felt that I needed to do my own thing.” He was 76 at the time of that interview and still driving a truck a couple of times a month.

The fuel infrastructure serving these fleets also has roots in this region. O. Jay Call, who came to Willard, Utah in the mid-1960s, founded Flying J in 1968, naming it for his love of flying, and built it into the largest retailer of diesel fuel in North America. His uncle, Reuel Call, had founded Maverik convenience stores in 1928 in Afton, Wyoming. FJ Management acquired Maverik in 2012. The Call family’s fuel network and the England-Moyes-Knight trucking empire developed in the same northern Utah environment across the same decades.

In September 2022, representatives of all four trucking firms gathered at Peery’s Egyptian Theater in Ogden for the premiere of a documentary about their shared origins. Gene England, then 102 years old, was present on stage alongside Jeff and Dan England, Jerry Moyes, and Kevin Knight.

The Fire

On the evening of 6 April 1974, Chester England went over to open up the lumber yard. He was 77 years old.

He described what followed in his own autobiography:

As I opened the office door, the place exploded and was engulfed with flames. It had been smoldering during the night. We do not know what caused it but it burned everything. I ran in to get the invoices but the ceiling began falling and burned holes in my jacket so I could have lost my life. This was a terrible experience watching everything you have worked hard for go up in flames. I was down in bed for 10 days from shock. We had insurance on it but I had been buying so much merchandise that the insurance didn’t begin to pay for the loss. I appreciated the fire department and the ward members who worked so hard to help. It took many weeks after to clean up. My family thought I should retire and not build it up again. However, I knew I wouldn’t be happy without something to do so I started rebuilding as soon as I could.

The 1977 History of Plain City records the fire at “England Builder’s Lumber Company” and gives the date as April 6, 1975. That date appears to be a transcription error in the town history; Chester’s own autobiography gives 6 April 1974, and that account is the primary source. The fire also destroyed the adjacent Leigh Archery Company, operated by LeGrande Leigh and Robert Jones. The insurance fell short. Chester was 77 and his family urged him to retire. He refused.

Plain City Will Consider Future of the Lumberyard

A newspaper clipping, attached to the first petition page, reported what happened next:

PLAIN CITY — The City Council here will hold a special session May 9 at 8 p.m. to make a decision on requests to rebuild a lumberyard and business destroyed by fire.

Requests that the city permit reconstruction of the lumberyard and Leigh Archery Co. came from Chester England and LeGrande Leigh and Robert Jones.

The council reported, however, that there have been some objections from citizens who do not want to see the lumber operation reestablished.

It also was reported there have been some questions as to the nature of the archery business being conducted. It has not been determined whether it is a commercial business or a manufacturing operation.

The requests to rebuild have been referred to the city planning commission for its recommendation. The recommendation is expected to be received prior to the May 9 meeting. All interested citizens are invited to attend the meeting which will be held in the City Hall.

The council also will consider various projects the city can carry out under the Utah Extension Service Program. Ronald Bouk of the service outlined various programs cities such as Plain City can conduct that may bring it awards and other benefits. The city must make application for such projects by May 31.

Some citizens did not want Chester to rebuild. And so his neighbors organized.

Milo and Gladys Ross

Milo James Ross (1921–2014) was born 4 February 1921 in a log cabin just north of Plain City. His mother, Ethel Sharp Ross, died of puerperal septicemia in August 1925 when Milo was four years old, leaving three surviving boys. Milo went to live with his Uncle Ed Sharp, Harold with Uncle Dale Sharp. They were raised in separate homes within a few blocks of one another in Plain City, the extended Sharp family absorbing the loss. For more on the Sharp family’s tragedies, see Sharp Tragedies.

Milo grew up working Ed Sharp’s farm — tending onions, hauling salt from the flats at Promontory, doing whatever needed doing. He played baseball with the Plain City Farm Bureau team and attended Weber High School.

Plain City baseball team. Back (l-r): William Freestone (manager), Norman Carver, Glen Charlton, Fred Singleton, Elmer Singleton (1918–1996). Middle: Clair Folkman, Dick Skeen, Albert Sharp, Abe Maw, Milo Ross. Front: F. Skeen, Walt Moyes, Arnold Taylor, Lynn Stewart, Theron Rhead. See also: Plain City Hurler.

1937 Plain City Baseball Champions. Back (l-r): Ben Van Shaar, Ervin Heslop, Ellis Stewart, Kenneth Taylor, Don Gibson, John Reese. Middle: Frank Hadley, Howard Wayment, Wayne Rose, Ray Charlton. Front: Keith Hodson, Howard Hunt, Wayne Carver, Lyle Thompson, Milo Ross.

In 1940 Milo met Gladys Maxine Donaldson (1921–2004) at a Plain City celebration. They married on 4 April 1942. Six months later Milo enlisted in the Army. He served in the 33rd Infantry Division, 130th Regiment, Company C, trained in weapons and earned expert ranking. He arrived in Hawaii on 4 July 1943 — the same day his son, Milo Paul, was born in Utah, a son he would not meet for three years. He fought through the jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines and was present at the Japanese surrender at Luzon in June 1945. He received two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star. His company received a Presidential Citation for outstanding performance during the seizure of Hill X in the Bilbil Mountain Province. For more on Milo’s military service, see Milo James Ross Military Medals and his 1997 oral history interview.

Milo Ross in uniform at Fort Lewis, Washington

He came home and went to work as a contractor and builder, eventually building and remodeling hundreds of homes throughout Utah, mostly in Weber County. That work is why, when the time came to gather signatures for Chester England, he had a pad of lumber yard estimate forms at hand. They were his working tools. He pressed them into service as petition pages.

Milo knew Chester England personally. A childhood photograph survives showing Milo alongside Harold Ross, Howard Hunt, Josephine Sharp, and Janelle England on horseback — the England and Ross and Sharp children together in the neighborhood as naturally as their parents moved among one another. In his 1997 oral history interview, Milo recalled Chester among the Plain City men who had struggled during the Depression years, when banks failed and farms were lost. Chester was woven into Milo’s memory of Plain City going back to his earliest years.

On Horse l-r: Harold Ross, Howard Hunt, Milo Ross, Josephine Sharp (arm only), Janelle England, Eddie Sharp. In front l-r: Ruby Sharp, Lucille Maw, and Milo Riley Sharp.

The Petition

The typed text at the center of the petition read:

We the citizens of Plain City feel that Chester England should be allowed to rebuild his lumber yard. Since when do you kick a man when he is down/ Lets stand together and help Chester England when he needs a friend.

The headers on the petition pages identify the organizers: “By Gladys and Milo Ross — To Help Mr. England — Rebuild Back Up.” The forms were passed through the community in the weeks leading up to the May 9 city council meeting. One page was circulated by Joan Jenkins.

My father, Milo Paul Ross, had worked for Chester England as a teenager. He and his first wife, Victoria “Vicki” Feldtman (1945–2018) — married 5 March 1963 — both signed the petition. For more on Vicki, see Vicki’s Class Pictures. My grandfather Harold Ross also signed. The Sharp cousins — W.A. Sharp and Florence Sharp, children of the family that had raised Milo and Harold — signed as well. Maude K. England and Chester R. England signed the petition themselves.

Among the more than 340 signers, the connections to Plain City’s history run deep. The Moyes family signed in force — the same family whose son Carl had driven trucks for Chester England and whose grandson Jerry would found Swift Transportation. The Knights signed — relatives of Maude Knight England and future founders of Knight Transportation. Elmer Singleton (1918–1996), the Plain City baseball legend who pitched in the major leagues for five teams over fifteen years, signed with his wife Elsie. Cherrill Palmer Knight (1931–2021), who had served as Plain City City Recorder and was the daughter of Vern and Viola Palmer — also signers — added her name alongside her husband Thayne (1931–2018). Roxey R. Heslop, who contributed the school and cemetery histories to the 1977 Plain City history book, also signed. Hildor England (1896–1983), born Johnson, who married into the England family, signed as well. Gordon C. Orton (1924–2008), a Plain City general contractor and World War II veteran who served in the Philippines, New Guinea, and Okinawa, signed with his wife Leone. Vernal Moyes, who had served as a Plain City councilman, signed alongside his family.

The 1977 History of Plain City records the outcome: “Builders Bargain Center, formerly England’s Builders. This business was started and run by Chester England for many years.” Chester rebuilt. The community’s voice prevailed. For more on Plain City’s history, see the Plain City series on Sagacity.

Circle A Construction

My father’s career at Circle A Construction was built substantially on the same industry that had shaped the England and Ross families in Plain City. Circle A, founded in 1952 in Jerome, Idaho by Marvin Aslett, hauled sugar beets for Amalgamated Sugar for most of its operating history. For roughly 34 years, from around 1971 until Circle A transferred the Paul operations to AgExpress in 2004, my father supervised beet hauls across the Magic Valley, from the fields to the Amalgamated dumps at Paul and elsewhere across southern Idaho — the same plants Jack Ross had worked in a generation before.

Marvin Aslett and Milo Paul Ross at Milo’s 20-year service recognition, 1990. See: Circle A Construction Honors.

Circle A truck in Paul parade — Circle A Construction truck in the Paul, Idaho parade, about 1985. See: Circle A Construction Trucks.

Marvin’s sons Larry and Steve Aslett ran the company alongside my father for decades. We called Larry “Uncle Larry” growing up. The Asletts took us to roundups in Mackay, to ranch country above White Knob. I worked for Circle A myself from 1993 through 1998. My first job in 1994 was washing and waxing trucks at the old Hynes beet dump in Paul after harvest. Jack Ross had worked for Amalgamated Sugar in Paul in the 1920s. My father hauled beets to Amalgamated in Paul for three decades. Circle A’s beet hauls fed the same company in the same town across three generations of this family’s working life.

Circle A trucks in front of Idaho Capitol — Circle A Construction trucks in front of the Idaho State Capitol, 2000

The Petition Pages

Below are all eight pages of the petition as collected by Milo and Gladys Ross in the spring of 1974.

Complete List of Signers

Names marked with an asterisk (*) represent uncertain readings of the cursive originals. Dates are given where confirmed through research. This list was transcribed from handwritten signatures; corrections and additions are welcome.

Adams, Alice
Adams, Allene C.
Adams, Calvin Rex
Allen, Jeanine
Alsup, Marguerete W.*
Alsup, Phil S.
Amussen, Doris Maw
Amussen, Richard W.
Ashdown, Rex R.
Ashdown, Virginia
Bacon, R.A.
Baker, Dean A.
Baker, Penny
Baker, Tom D.
Baker, Vivian
Beeler, Diana
Beeler, Jack
Beutler, Kandis C.
Beutler, Lloyd J.
Bingham, Dee
Bingham, Evelyn
Bingham, Farrell J.
Bingham, Junior D.
Bingham, Lorene
Bingham, Zona F.
Brown, Donna
Brown, Robert
Bullock, Duane
Bullock, Joyce W.
Bunn, Carol
Bunn, John H.
Burr, Adle R.
Burr, Arnold K.
Burr, Kenna F.
Burr, Lester
Burr, Roy D.
Butler, Donnette R.
Butler, Kenneth L.
Butterfield, Judy*
Calvert, Elaine
Calvert, Kent W.
Carver, Brent
Carver, Harold C.
Carver, Jane
Carver, Liland
Carver, Theone
Chase, Dannell
Chase, Ladd
Chase, LaRene G.
Chase, Norma P.
Child, Melvin E.
Chournas, Beverly*
Chournas, Chris*
Christensen, Barbara
Christensen, Darrell
Christensen, Ivan
Christensen, Ken
Christensen, Margaret
Christensen, Ted
Cliften, Elaine
Cliften, Robert
Close, Tom*
Cook, Dee
Cook, George
Cook, Harvey
Cook, Jennie
Cook, LaRae
Cook, Lyman H.
Corey, Dean
Corey, Fae
Costley, Elsie
Costley, Paul
Cowell, Florence
Crook, Carlene
Crook, Lane
Daley, Kenneth*
Daley, Thora
Dall, Kathie*
Davidson, Donna
Davidson, Kathy
Davidson, Marland L.
DeVries, Norm
Donaldson, Betty M.
Donaldson, David
East, Ava M.
East, Donald
East, Jimmy K.
Eddy, Beverly
Eddy, Max
Ellis, Carole
Ellis, Diana
Ellis, Donald B.
Ellis, Glen
Ellis, Janet
Ellis, Lynn
Ellis, Ray
England, Boyce
England, Chester R. (1896–1989)
England, Hildor (1896–1983)
England, Marvel S.
England, Maude K. (1897–1982)
England, Merlin
England, Mona
England, Orel W.
Eskelson, David Lon
Etherington, John E.
Etherington, Nelda
Fisher, Dorothy K.
Fisher, Robert W.
Folkman, Andrea
Folkman, Carl
Folkman, Clair
Folkman, Clara
Folkman, Cliff
Folkman, Jim
Folkman, LeRoy
Folkman, Norma
Folkman, Robert L.
Folkman, Viola
Foremaster, Bonne*
Foremaster, Pete
Fuller, Mary Lynn
Fuller, Rex
Fuhriman, Viola
Gallegos, Edith
Gee, Vilate
Giles, Lewis
Giles, Lucille
Grieve, Claramae
Grieve, Paul
Haas, Julie
Hadley, Barbara
Hadley, Connie
Hadley, Devaine
Hadley, Doug
Hadley, Gordon
Hadley, Howard
Hadley, Janet
Hadley, Karma W.*
Hadley, LaVirra*
Hadley, Lenora
Hadley, Mary Fee*
Hamp, Beth
Hansen, Gaylen G.
Hansen, Loren M.
Hansen, Nancy
Havseler/Tesseder, Christine*
Haws, Arlene
Haws, Darwin C.
Haws, Varnell
Heslop, Roxey R.
Higley, Shirley
Higley, Willard J.
Hill, Gary
Hill, Kae
Hipwell, Elmer
Hipwell, Joanne
Hipwell, Rosetta
Hobson, Connie
Hobson, Jack
Hodson, Delbert
Hodson, Lyle M.
Hodson, Mr. Ivan
Hodson, Ms. Ivan
Holmes, Doug
Holmes, Joanne
Hori, Nancy
Hori, Sam
Howard, Virgie
Howell, Kent*
Howell, Peggy J.
Hunt, Jan
Hurst, Vick*
Imlay, Nancy
Imlay, Terrence
Jackson, David W.
Jackson, George
Jackson, Mrs. George
Jackson, Mrs. Keith
Jackson, Keith
Jenkins, Ellen W.
Jenkins, Genevieve
Jenkins, Joan
Jenkins, JoAnn
Jenkins, Joyce
Jenkins, Quentin M.
Jenkins, Ronald
Jensen, Blaine R.
Jensen, Joyce
Jensen, June B.*
Jensen, Kit O.
Johansen, Barry L.
Johansen, Carol
Johnson, Judy B.
Johnson, Randy
Johnson, Rex L.
Jolly, Grace
Jolly, L.M.*
Jones, Kathy
Jones, Robert
Kapp, Clara Jean
Kapp, Leon
Kawa, Grant D.
Kelley, Bertha
Kelley, Gail
Kelley, Jesse R.
Kelley, Leona
Kennedy, Hazel
Kishimoto, Lorn
Knight, Argus*
Knight, Arson*
Knight, Cherrill (1931–2021)
Knight, Thayne E. (1931–2018)
Lakey, Dixie
Lakey, Tom
Large, Fred*
Large, Kay*
Larkin, Wade R.
Laub, William R.
Lord, Clarendon “Gene” (1929–2015)
Lord, Cline
Lund, Elizabeth
Lund, Eugene
Lund, Keith
Lund, Pearl
Mace, Rieths*
Mahoney, Kathryn
Mahnke, Eugene
Mahnke, Laura
Maw, Abram E.
Maw, Floy A.
Maw, Karen
Maw, Monna B.
Maw, Norma Jean
Maw, R. John
McFarland, Fenton
McMillan, Nola L.*
McMillan, Thomas A.*
Merrill, Paul O.*
Mikkelsen, Leo
Mikkelsen, Renee
Miller, Clarence
Miller, Ranae
Miller, Thomas A.
Miller, Veda L.
Moyes, Beverly
Moyes, Dale L.
Moyes, Edna
Moyes, Elaine
Moyes, Elbert
Moyes, Fentis*
Moyes, Ivan
Moyes, Juanita
Moyes, Kay H.
Moyes, LuJean
Moyes, Lynn V.
Moyes, Mable
Moyes, Orin
Moyes, Vernal
Nash, Augusta R.
Neff, Mr. Wayne
Neff, Ms. Wayne
North, Janet
North, Rick
Olofson, Mary L.
Olofson, Robert L.
Olsen, Ian*
Olsen, Mary
Olsen, Ron
Olsen, Yvonne
Orton, Gordon C. (1924–2008)
Orton, Leone
Overman, Curt
Painter, Cleo
Painter, Lee
Palmer, Douglas
Palmer, Lawrence
Palmer, Susanne
Palmer, Thelma H.
Palmer, Vern
Palmer, Viola (1908–2009)
Post, Bessie
Post, Judy O.
Poulsen, Bernard
Poulsen, Nora
Rasmussen, Don J.
Rasmussen, MaryLynn
Reese, J.D.
Rhead, Bonnie
Rhead, Steve
Rhead, Theron
Rhead, Vivian
Ritz, Mark
Robins, Jay*
Robins, Mildred
Robson, Amy
Roddomy, Ronald*
Rogers, Dennis O.
Rogers, Shareen
Roper, Mr. Rodney
Roper, Mrs. Rodney
Ross, Gladys (1921–2004) — organizer
Ross, Harold
Ross, Milo James (1921–2014) — organizer
Ross, Paul M.
Ross, Vicki (1945–2018)
Russell, Joe
Russell, Shirley
Sargent, Evona
Sargent, Kent
Saunders, Carl R.
Searcy, Hazel
Searcy, Kenneth J.
Seegmiller, Dale
Seegmiller, Marie F.
Sharp, Florence
Sharp, Laurel
Sharp, W.A.
Shaw, Jerrell B.
Shaw, Phyllis
Simpson, Archie W.*
Simpson, Florence
Singleton, Elmer (1918–1996)
Singleton, Elsie (–1988)
Singleton, VaCona
Skeen, Archie
Skeen, Charles
Skeen, Dick
Skeen, Lorraine
Skeen, Luella
Skeen, Wayne
Smith, LaWanna R.
Smith, Vernon J.
Sneddon, Dennis
Sorensen, Gordon A.
Sorensen, Karma
Sparks, Mildred
Stagge, Floyd
Stagge, Myrle
Statler, Lynda
Statler, Richard
Stevens, Debra
Stevens, Gwen C.
Stevens, John W.
Tafoya, Arthur
Tafoya, Via
Taylor, Alice
Taylor, Annette
Taylor, Call
Taylor, Clare
Taylor, Edna
Taylor, Elma
Taylor, Elvin L. (1920–2004)
Taylor, Elizabeth
Taylor, Fern
Taylor, Frances
Taylor, Gerald J.*
Taylor, Grant
Taylor, Idona Maw
Taylor, Jr.*
Taylor, Kathlene
Taylor, Kathy
Taylor, Ralph A.
Taylor, Rodney
Taylor, Rolla H.
Taylor, Ross M.
Taylor, Sheri
Taylor, Val
Taylor, Valoy (1932–2024)
Tesseder, Doug*
Thomas, Duane F.
Thompson, Gordon
Thompson, Lavina
Thompson, Margaret
Thompson, Marvel
Thompson, Merrvin*
Tippetts, Larry*
Truscott, L.C.
Truscott, LaVona
Valdez, Evelyn
Valdez, Raymond J.
Van Meeteren, Beth
Van Meeteren, Frank
Van Meeteren, Jean
Van Meeteren, Ron
Van Workom, Joyce*
Vaughn, Bert
Vaughn, Renee
Wakefield, Marilyn
Walton, Neale
Walton, Rhea
Weatherstone, Lorraine
West, George C.
West, Lillian
Westbrook, Herman
Weston, Becky
Weston, Brent
Weston, Eldon
Weston, Fae
Weston, Jae H.
Williams, Arnold A.
Williams, Charlotte
Williams, Delbert
Williams, F. LeRoy
Williams, Karen A.
Williams, Nadiene
Winder, Jane
Winder, Wayne
Wright, Norma

Sunday, 3 May 2026 by Sagacity

Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment

In September 2020, Amanda and I took our family out to Golden Spike National Historic Park at Promontory Summit, Utah. I have written about that visit previously. What drew us there, in part, was the knowledge that Amanda’s 3rd great-grandfather Joseph Wayment had been present on 10 May 1869 when the last spike was driven completing the transcontinental railroad — and that Andrew J. Russell’s famous photograph had captured him standing in the crowd. I promised in that post to tell more of Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment’s story another time. This is that time.

Hiram, Amanda, Aliza, and Paul Ross, Bryan Hemsley, Lillian and James Ross, and Jill Hemsley at Golden Spike National Historic Park, September 2020 — Hiram, Amanda, Aliza, and Paul Ross, Bryan Hemsley, Lillian and James Ross, and Jill Hemsley at Golden Spike National Historic Park, 7 September 2020.

East and West Shaking Hands at the Laying of the Last Rail, Promontory Summit, Utah, 10 May 1869. Photograph by Andrew J. Russell. Joseph Wayment stands in the crowd on the left side of the image. Find the man standing below the Union Pacific’s No. 119 locomotive light with his jacket open and white shirt, then find the man whose head is in front of that man’s right thigh, behind the fellow with the partially raised hat. That is Joseph Wayment, age 25.

Andrew J. Russell, the official photographer of the Union Pacific Railroad who took this photograph, wrote of that moment: “The continental iron band now permanently unites the distant portions of the Republic, and opens up to Commerce, Navigation, and Enterprise the vast unpeopled plains and lofty mountain ranges that now divide the East from the West. Standing amid ‘The Antres vast and Desert wild,’ surrounded with the representative men of the nation, an epoch in the march of civilization was recorded, and a new era in human progress was ushered in.”

Joseph Wayment was one of the men in that crowd — a twenty-five-year-old English convert who had crossed the Atlantic seasick on the Amazon, walked the plains behind an ox team, survived Montana winters so cold the dishwater froze before it hit the snow, and was now building a life in a patch of Utah desert he would spend the next six decades transforming into a home, a farm, and a community. Would he have fathomed that 151 years later his great-great-great-granddaughter, and her children, would stand at that same spot.

Origins in Whaddon

joseph_young_portrait — Joseph Wayment, circa 1874.

I used AI to colorize and sharpen the images. If you click on them, you should be able to see the original black and white. AI took a bit of liberty on the photos regarding clothes.

ann_young_portrait — Ann Reed, circa 1874.

Joseph Wayment was born 7 February 1844 in Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, England, the second son of William and Martha Brown Wayment. His older brother Aaron had lived only one day, so as far as the family was concerned, Joseph was the eldest. I have written previously about his parents in my post on William and Martha Wayment.

Ann Reed was born 1 January 1852 in the same small village — the fifth child and second daughter of James and Sarah East Reed. Whaddon was a tight community, a small village in the district of Royston, County of Cambridge, gathered around the ancient stone church of St. Mary the Virgin. Whaddon appears to have been somewhere around 400-500 people. The Wayments and the Reeds were neighbors in every sense of the word. Their children attended the same meetings, worked the same fields, and children would be baptized in the same river/brook.

Ann’s early life was marked by tragedy. When she was two years old, she slipped into a deep ditch near their home. No one else was nearby. Her mother, Sarah East Reed, then heavy with child, jumped in after her. Ann was saved, but the ordeal brought on labor. The baby girl was born 13 July 1854 and died the same day. Three days later, Sarah also died from complications, and mother and infant were buried together in the same casket. Ann’s father James Reed did his best to keep the family together, but he too died on 2 February 1858, leaving five orphans — the oldest fourteen, Ann just five years old.

Their mother’s sister, Hannah East, came to Whaddon to keep house for the children. Hannah was herself from Whaddon — born there on 24 August 1828, the sister of Sarah East Reed and of George East Sr., who would later become a familiar figure in Warren, Utah. Hannah was baptized LDS 3 June 1848. She stayed with the Reed orphans for several years before emigrating to Zion, where she eventually settled in Lehi, Utah, married Thomas Karren in 1865, and lived until 2 May 1907. It is a quiet thread of continuity that Hannah — who held Ann’s orphaned family together in Whaddon — ended her days in the same territory where Ann built her life, just a day’s journey away in Lehi.

After Hannah left England, the children were kept by the Parish until they could earn their own living. Ann went out to service at age eleven. She endured difficult conditions in several positions before finally working David and Mary Hide Grieg (the histories state it was Grigg), where she stayed nearly five years and carefully saved her wages toward passage to America. The Grieg family lived in nearby Melbourn, a family that was not LDS.

The Gospel Comes to Whaddon

I wrote in the William and Martha Wayment post about how the Wayment home had become a gathering place for LDS missionaries since William’s baptism in March 1850 — how despite community hostility, meetings were held in different houses and baptisms conducted at night to avoid mobs. The gospel took hold in Whaddon. On the night of 7 May 1860, Joseph Wayment, age sixteen, was baptized in Whaddon Brook along with his brother Samuel and sister Emily. Ann Reed, age eight, was baptized and confirmed the same night.

They shared the same waters. They would share a life.

Joseph worked in the peat bogs with his father from his early teens, fossil digging to earn enough for his passage to Zion. He had one more memorable appearance in Whaddon before he left: shortly before his departure, he sang a solo at a church meeting that deeply impressed those present. His voice was described as a clear and beautiful bass. Ann Reed, then twelve years old, was in that congregation. Decades later she would tell her grandchildren with deep feeling how thrilled she had been sitting in that meeting listening to Joseph sing.

The Voyage of the Amazon, 1863

On 1 June 1863, Joseph left Whaddon for Liverpool. Three days later, on 4 June, he booked passage on the sailing vessel Amazon — listed on the manifest as “Joseph Waymound,” age 19 — and sailed from Liverpool with 881 fellow Saints bound for Zion. As I wrote in my Stoker family post, the Amazon was a famous voyage. It was this crossing that Charles Dickens observed and wrote about, describing the Mormon emigrants not as misfits and scoundrels but as the “pick and flower” of England. Future U.S. Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland was also aboard (whose family was LDS). George Q. Cannon dedicated the ship. My own Stoker ancestors were on this same vessel — an extraordinary coincidence that ties our two family lines together. Since Warren and Plain City were small communities, they likely knew each other.

Joseph was seasick nearly the entire six-week crossing. The Amazon landed in New York around the middle of July 1863. He traveled by train to a point on the Missouri River, then by boat up to Florence, Nebraska. From there he walked and drove an ox team across the plains in Captain Dan McCarty’s company — a new experience for him, as he later told his grandsons, having learned to handle horses in England but never oxen. He arrived in Salt Lake City on 3 October 1863, four months and two days after leaving his father’s home.

The very next day the October General Conference of the Church began, held in the Bowery. Joseph stood near the speakers’ platform. Brigham Young was one of the speakers, and Joseph later said it was one of the most inspiring sermons he ever heard — that Brigham Young seemed to be surrounded by a bright light. Part of that sermon Joseph remembered all his life.

The Freighting Years, 1864–1866

After a winter in Lehi, Joseph went to work in the spring of 1864 for a freighting company — probably the Toponce Freighting Company — hauling goods to Montana. He stayed with the outfit until the fall of 1866. Those were hard and consequential years.

The winter of 1864 was brutal. The freighters were snowbound on a Montana river for several weeks. Joseph served as camp cook. He later told his family that when he threw out the dishwater, it froze to ice before it hit the snow. Some of the cattle froze to death. One day the lot fell to Joseph to fetch wood. His hands were tender from cooking and dishwashing, but he went out and cut an armful. As he was picking up the last piece of wood, he felt his whole body beginning to freeze. He stumbled back toward the cabin, but before he reached it his whole body had gone numb. The men rubbed him with coal oil and did everything they could to revive him. One of them said, “Joe Wayment gets no more wood this winter — I’ll get it for him.”

During the freighting years two confrontations became family legend. In the first, a stranger from another company approached the camp and asked if there were any Mormons present. He was directed to Joseph. The man told him he had helped mob the Saints in Missouri and Illinois, then pulled open his shirt to his chest and said, “Now shoot me.” He had lived such a miserable life since helping the mob, he said, that he wanted a Mormon to shoot him. Joseph replied: “No Mormon will ever stain his hands with your blood.”

In the second, the freighters encountered soldiers who had been in Johnston’s Army making their way north into Washington. Learning that some of the freighters were from Utah, they asked to hear the song that had been made up about Johnston’s Army coming to Utah. Joseph was the best singer in camp. He refused at first, knowing it would anger them. When they promised not to get angry, he relented and sang. One soldier became so furious he drew his pistol and threatened to kill the singer. The captain of the soldiers, quick as a flash, drew his own pistol on the angry man and said he would kill him if he harmed the singer. The other soldiers took the man away.

A third incident, at a freighters’ stop near Oxford, Idaho, demonstrated that Joseph was a man of both faith and action. He and his longtime friend and fellow teamster William Butler had pulled in for the night after a long drive. Other freighters already there greeted them with jeers — “There’s those Mormons” — and tried to force them to move on. Joseph and Butler had weary teams and held their ground. When words grew heated, Joseph walked briskly to his wagon, took the green willow switch he used to urge his team, walked thirty paces to some soft ground, and with one swing left it standing upright. Then he walked back, drew his pistol, turned, and split the willow with one shot. The heckling stopped immediately.

In the fall of 1866 Joseph had a strong feeling come over him that he should return to Utah. The company he was working with was a rough and irreligious crowd. He found a secluded spot in the timber, knelt, and asked the Lord for guidance. The next morning his mind was made up. He saddled his horse, gathered his belongings — three buffalo robes and his working clothes — and started for Utah.

Settling Salt Creek

He came first to Layton or Kaysville, then went to Call’s Fort near present Honeyville where he worked for a man named Barnard and helped build the first schoolhouse there. He bought a piece of land at Call’s Fort but eventually sold it. In 1872 he moved to what was then called Salt Creek, southwest of Plain City, and bought the land he would own until his death — purchasing it from H. H. Wadman, making him the second family to settle on Salt Creek. He kept “Bachelor’s Hall” there for about two years. His brother John B. Wayment, who arrived from England in July 1873, lived with him for part of that time.

wt_wayment_home — The home of Bishop William Thomas Wayment and his wife Maud at 662 N. 5900 W. in Warren. Joseph Wayment appears at far right with a horse.

About 1872, Joseph began writing letters to a young woman of his boyhood acquaintance back in Whaddon — Ann Reed. She had grown up, gone out to service, endured difficult years, and was now working for the Greig family, carefully saving her wages. She accepted his invitation to come to Utah and be his wife.

Ann Comes to America, 1874

Ann left her place of work on 2 June 1874 and sailed from Liverpool on 24 June 1874 aboard the steamship Idaho. The Idaho carried 903 passengers on that voyage, arriving in New York on 6 July 1874. Ann traveled overland by rail and arrived in Ogden about the middle of July.

Joseph met her in Ogden — likely taking her to his brother Samuel’s home. On the way they crossed a stream of clear running water. Joseph stopped the horses to let them drink, cupped his hat, dipped it in, and offered Ann the first drink. She couldn’t bring herself to drink water out of a hat from a river like that. Joseph enjoyed the cool drink regardless.

On 7 August 1874, Joseph Wayment and Ann Reed were married by Louis Warren Shurtliff at Joseph’s home in Salt Creek — ending, as Alma Hansen later wrote, the era of “Bachelor’s Hall.” On 29 June 1876, Joseph and Ann traveled to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, where they were endowed and sealed to each other for time and all eternity. Joseph had been ordained an Elder by Alonzo Knight ten days earlier, on 19 June 1876, in preparation for that ordinance.

The First Years in Salt Creek

warren_home_1928 — The Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment home in Warren, photographed June 1928. Joseph is likely the seated figure visible on the front porch.

Their first child, Sarah, was born 29 October 1875 — one of the first white children born in the Salt Creek area. In the spring of 1876 the Weber River overflowed its banks and covered much of the country where Warren now stands. The first time it came up, it stayed two weeks. The crops survived. But the river flooded again, higher than before, and stayed six weeks. The crops were completely destroyed. Joseph’s house was just high enough to keep the water from running under it — but it came right to the doorstep. He kept a rowboat in which he and Ann traveled to the sandhill in Plain City to do business. His horses broke loose just before the flood and were later found on meadows west of Brigham City. The other cattle and horses in the area lived on the high knolls until the water subsided.

Joseph planted the first fruit and shade trees in the Warren area. He watered them by hand from a well he dug himself, using a long pole with a hook and a bucket because he didn’t have a rope. Later he had a windmill built over the well and irrigated some of his crops with it. About 1880 the residents of Salt Creek organized together and built a ditch up to Four-Mile in the southern part of Plain City to run water to their crops. Part of that original ditch can still be seen near the north side of the bench in Warren.

In March 1881 Joseph was appointed secretary and assistant superintendent of the Salt Creek Sunday School, offices he held for many years. In 1883 he was chairman of the board of trustees for the first schoolhouse built in Warren — a one-room brick building on the bench. His sister Martha Wayment, now Mrs. David East, was the first teacher.

About 1877 Joseph was appointed the first road supervisor in the Warren district, a position he held for ten years. The road supervisor received no pay for his services other than to apply his labor toward his poll taxes, as did all the other men. About the first work done was to fill up some of the creek crossings. He also hauled salt from the creek banks west of Plain City up to the Hot Springs — a full day’s work per load for which he received fifty cents. The salt was used in the smelting of silver ore in Montana.

Six more children followed Sarah: Martha Ann (2 June 1877), Leonard Joseph (12 September 1878), Mary Jane (8 May 1880), Walter Hyrum (14 November 1881), Hannah Alberta (23 August 1883), and Amelia Brown (29 July 1890).

family_portrait_1890 — Back row, left to right: Sarah Wayment, Martha Ann Wayment, Leonard Joseph Wayment, Mary Jane Wayment. Middle row: Hannah Alberta Wayment, Joseph Wayment, Ann Reed Wayment holding Amelia Brown Wayment, Martha Brown Wayment (Joseph’s mother). Seated in front: Walter Hyrum Wayment. Photograph circa 1890–1891.

The family portrait above, taken around 1890–1891 when Amelia was an infant, captures all seven children in a single frame. Four generations are present — including Joseph’s mother Martha Brown Wayment at far right, who had herself made the journey from Whaddon in 1878. I wrote about her in the William and Martha Wayment post.

The Flood of 1884 and Ann’s Heroism

In the spring of 1884 the Weber River flooded again — not as severe as 1876, but severe enough to kill all the crops, many fruit trees, and berry bushes. Joseph moved his family into his brother John’s house on the brow of the hill north of the Arthur Marriott home — a one-room house, not large enough for all the family to sleep in. Some of the children slept in a wagon under the shed.

A day or two after they moved, a heavy rain set in. The children’s bedding became soaked. In trying to provide for his family, Joseph was exposed to the rain, cold, and mosquitoes, and he took down with malaria fever. The house was too small for any comfort, and some of the men of the locality moved the family back into their own house — even though it was surrounded by water.

For six weeks Joseph lay near death. Many did not expect him to recover. During this time Ann would walk — and sometimes wade, in water up to her knees — a quarter to half a mile west on the bench to where their cow was pastured. She milked the cow and carried the milk back to feed her husband. For a while he was so weak he could not feed himself, and Ann would have to feed him by hand. He sent for elders from Plain City to administer to him. While they were visiting, he asked to be propped up in bed and talked with them at length. From that time he continued to improve, though he was not entirely well for several years. That fall he was well enough to work on the threshing machine.

Of all the incidents in the long life of Joseph and Ann Wayment, this one — Ann wading flood water to milk the cow and hand-feed her dying husband — speaks most directly to the character of their partnership. The memorial card at their graves in West Warren says it plainly: “Ann Reed Wayment gave loyal and loving support to her husband. No problem arose that they did not find a place of adjustment and agreement.”

Firsts in Warren

The 1902 Portrait, Genealogical and Biographical Record of the State of Utah described Joseph as “one of nature’s noblemen” and enumerated his contributions to the community. He planted the first fruit and shade trees. He was the first road supervisor, serving ten years. When the first schoolhouse was built he served as school board chairman, assessor, and collector. He was one of the first stockholders and directors of the Slaterville Creamery. He raised one hundred tons of sugar beets annually for the Ogden sugar factory.

By 1888 Joseph had shifted his main occupation from general farming to dairying. He kept as many as fourteen milk cows at once. His children did much of the work — milking the cows, putting the milk in cans under cool water until the cream gathered to the top, then skimming and churning it to butter. They sold as many as 2,000 pounds of their own butter in a single year. Later the milk went to the Slaterville creamery, of which Joseph was a founding director.

In November 1910 Joseph was elected Justice of the Peace of the Warren Precinct — a fitting civic capstone for the man who had been among the first to settle Salt Creek and had spent decades building its institutions.

In 1896 Salt Creek was officially named Warren, after Lewis Warren Shurtliff, the stake president who organized the new ward — the same Louis Warren Shurtliff who had married Joseph and Ann in 1874.

Ann in Warren

ann_reed_portrait — Ann Reed Wayment at her home in Warren.

Ann Reed Wayment was a woman of quiet and enduring strength. Her daughter Mary Jane wrote of her: “She was an energetic worker in Relief Society, holding and filling many offices in it. She was very useful among the sick, exercising great faith as her best healing art. She was a kind, loving, very thoughtful mother to her family. She lived a useful life, impressing her children and those who mingled with her what a wonderful mother and woman she really was.”

The Warren Ward Relief Society was organized on 30 November 1902. Ann was sustained as its Treasurer — her sister-in-law Castina Wayment, wife of Joseph’s brother Samuel, served as First Counselor. Ann was not present at the organization meeting but was set apart as Treasurer on 5 February 1903. At the first Relief Society meeting held at the home of President Jane Stewart on 18 December 1902, Ann bore her testimony and gave the benediction. She served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Warren Relief Society from 1902 to 1916.

Alma Hansen, who knew both his grandparents personally and compiled their biography from firsthand family accounts, described Ann in a single memorable sentence: “She was short of stature but stood ten feet tall in her loving service.”

A February Week in Logan, 1893

logan_temple_1890s — Logan, Utah, with the Logan Temple visible in the background, circa 1890s. Digital Image © 2001 Utah State Historical Society. All rights reserved. Used for non-commercial, educational purposes.

In February 1893, Joseph and Ann made an extended trip to the Logan Temple — a journey that had been years in the making. In careful sequence over eight days, they completed ordinance work for ancestors in their lineage and sealed their families together for eternity.

On 16 February 1893, Joseph was sealed to his parents, William and Martha Brown Wayment, in the Logan Utah Temple.

On 21 February, proxy baptism and confirmation were performed for James Reed and Sarah East Reed — Ann’s parents — in the Logan Temple.

On 22 February, the proxy endowment was performed for Sarah East Reed in the Logan Temple. Almost certainly the same was done for James Reed that day, though that record was later lost and the ordinance was repeated at the Manti Temple in 1938.

On 23 February 1893, Ann was sealed to her parents, James and Sarah East Reed, in the Logan Temple.

For a woman who had grown up an orphan at age five — whose mother died saving her life in 1854 and whose father died in 1858 — this February week in the Logan Temple completed a covenant that no earthly circumstance had been able to make. The parents she had barely known were now bound to her forever.

A Mission at Fifty-Six

mission_acceptance_letter — Joseph Wayment’s handwritten mission acceptance letter to Brother George Reynolds, Warren, 15 January 1900. “It would be agreeable my feelings, and consistent with my circumstances, to take a mission to preach the gospel, if I am considered worthy. I can be ready within 30 days, or less. I remain your Brother, Joseph Wayment.”

On Christmas Day 1899, Joseph was asked to fill a mission for the Church. He was fifty-five years old, a grandfather, and still carrying the kidney effects of a severe malaria attack from fifteen years earlier. His response, written in his own hand on 15 January 1900 to Brother George Reynolds of the First Council of the Seventies, occupies four plain lines: it would be agreeable to his feelings and consistent with his circumstances; he could be ready within thirty days, or less. He remained the reader’s Brother, Joseph Wayment.

On 19 January 1900 he received his formal call from President Lorenzo Snow to labor in the Southwestern States. He was set apart on 14 February 1900 by Apostle George Teasdale in the Temple Annex in Salt Lake City — the same day his Seventy’s License was formally issued, signed by Seymour B. Young, President of the First Seven Presidents of the Seventies.

seventys_certificate — Joseph Wayment’s Seventy’s License Certificate, issued 14 February 1900, certifying his ordination as a Seventy by Jacob Gates on 7 November 1889. Signed by Seymour B. Young.

His Missionary Certificate bore the signatures of the entire First Presidency: President Lorenzo Snow, First Counselor George Q. Cannon, and Second Counselor Joseph F. Smith. That Joseph’s mission call passed through the hands of George Reynolds — historically notable as the defendant in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Reynolds v. United States (1879) — places it squarely in the living history of the Church.

He left the next day for Kansas, laboring first in Elk County under Elder H. E. Harrison, then for nearly four months in Greenwood County, until he was taken very sick with malaria again. In his own words: “I left my field of labor on the 4th of July for St. John and arrived home on the 7th, three days later. I was sick for three or four months.” The malaria affected his kidneys, an effect he felt until his death.

While Joseph was away on his mission and then ill at home, Ann kept the farm, the animals, and the household organized. When he returned, she nursed him back to health.

The Children

Of their seven children, three preceded them in death. Martha Ann, their firstborn daughter, married Louis Alma Hansen on 23 November 1898. She died on 19 October 1908 at age 31 of acute nephritis, leaving four children and her husband. Her loss was a grief Joseph and Ann carried quietly for the rest of their lives. Leonard Joseph married Sarah Naomi Hodson in 1902, was called to the British Mission in November 1915, labored in Belfast, Ireland, took sick, and arrived home 19 July 1916. He passed away the next morning, leaving a wife and three children.

The four who outlived their parents were Sarah (married Joseph Emelius Hansen), Mary Jane (married Samuel Bagley Willis, later Orson Francis Waldram), Walter Hyrum (married Iva Dell Wade), Hannah Alberta (married Thomas LeRoy White), and Amelia Brown (married George James Lythgoe).

The 70th Birthday, 1914

birthday_70th_photo — Family portrait honoring Joseph Wayment’s 70th birthday, 7 February 1914, Warren, Weber, Utah. Third row center: Ann Reed Wayment and Joseph Wayment, flanked by siblings John Brown Wayment and William Thomas Wayment and sister Martha East.

On 7 February 1914 the extended Wayment family gathered at the Warren home for Joseph’s 70th birthday — a family portrait captured four rows of family: children, grandchildren, siblings, their spouses and children, and young Alma Wayment Hansen himself, visible as a boy in the second row, who would later compile a biography of his grandparents. At the center of the third row sit Joseph and Ann, flanked by his brothers John Brown and William Thomas Wayment and his sister Martha East. By this gathering all the children had married.

The Grasshoppers

One incident from Joseph’s later years became a touchstone story in the family, attested to by his daughter Sarah. A summer or two after his first malaria attack, he had planted wheat in the field north of the house. The crop grew abundantly, had headed out full, and was beginning to turn yellow when the children noticed one evening that a great horde of grasshoppers had descended on the grain. They went in and told their father. He was not well, still weakened from the malaria. He arose, took his cane, and walked out into the field.

The grasshoppers were large and so thick they were bending the stalks almost to the ground. What once looked like a bounteous harvest now seemed doomed. Then right there in the midst of the grain and the grasshoppers, Joseph knelt and made a most fervent appeal to his Heavenly Father for aid. Night came on. The family retired — but not without family prayer. The next morning not a grasshopper could be found on the grain. There were no traces of where they had been.

The Golden Wedding, 1924

tribune_golden_wedding — Salt Lake Tribune, 12 August 1924. Joseph Wayment and Wife Honored on Their Golden Wedding Day.

golden_wedding_photo — Left to right: Walter Hyrum Wayment, Amelia Brown Wayment Lythgoe, Joseph Wayment, Ann Reed Wayment, Sarah Wayment. Photograph taken at the Warren home, circa 1924.

On Thursday, 7 August 1924, Joseph and Ann celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with elaborate festivities at their Warren home. The Salt Lake Tribune reported the occasion. By remarkable coincidence, a great-grandson was born that same day at nearly the identical hour that Joseph and Ann had married fifty years before — a son born to Mr. and Mrs. William Bennington Jr. of Ogden. The event, as the paper noted, cheered the aged couple considerably.

The celebration drew family from across Weber County. Among those present were Joseph’s siblings — his sisters Mrs. Martha East of Warren and Mrs. Emily Mullen of Ogden, and his brother Bishop William T. Wayment of Warren — along with four daughters, one son, and twenty-six grandchildren.

The photograph captures something of what fifty years in Warren had built. Joseph stands center-rear, his great white beard the same beard his doctor had prescribed after the 1884 malaria — protection for his throat and chest from the cold. Ann stands center-front, hands folded, short of stature. Sarah, their eldest — the first white child born in Warren — stands at the right. Walter Hyrum, their only surviving son, is at the far left with his wife Amelia Lythgoe beside him.

Final Years

joseph_ann_together — Ann Reed and Joseph Wayment.

ann_joseph_late_life — Left to right: Verlan Hansen, Ann Reed Wayment holding Donald Peterson, Eulail Peterson (back), Robert Hansen (front), Joseph Wayment holding Elaine Hansen, Irene Hansen. Joseph and Ann were the great-grandparents of the children in this picture.

Joseph bought his first automobile in 1912, just past his 68th birthday. About 1922 his eyesight became too poor to read. From that time until his death, someone had to read all news to him. He lived at his own home in Warren until the very end, cared for by his daughter Sarah. He delighted in bearing his testimony and seemed never to tire of talking about and explaining the principles of the gospel. His last public appearance was at a fast and testimony meeting on 11 October 1931, where he bore a strong testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospel and to the fact that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.

Ann did not live to see it. She died on the morning of 14 June 1931, at 8:10 a.m., at their Warren home after a three months’ illness — her cause of death recorded on her death certificate as chronic myocarditis with arteriosclerosis as a contributing factor. She had lived in Warren for 57 years without interruption. Her brother-in-law Bishop William T. Wayment was among the speakers at her funeral. A sextet of nephews and nieces sang. Mrs. Jessie Wayment sang a solo. Grandsons served as pallbearers. Granddaughters took charge of the flowers. She was buried in the Warren Cemetery on 17 June 1931.

Joseph took sick on the afternoon of Thursday, 17 December 1931. He passed away very peacefully on Sunday evening, 20 December 1931, at Dee Hospital in Ogden, of bronchopneumonia — the chronic malaria that had plagued him since 1884 listed as a contributing condition. He was 87 years old.

joseph_obituary — Obituary of Joseph Wayment, Ogden Standard Examiner, 21 December 1931.

He was buried on 23 December 1931 in the Warren Cemetery, beside Ann, who had preceded him six months and six days. They had been married 56 years, 10 months, and 7 days.

Legacy

sarah_and_joseph — Sarah Ann Wayment Hansen and her father Joseph Wayment in his final years. Sarah cared for Joseph at home until his death in December 1931.

When Joseph and Ann Wayment arrived in Salt Creek in the early 1870s, there was almost nothing there. When they died in 1931, Warren was a community with a church, a school, a creamery, roads, canals, orchards — many of the first of each having been planted, built, or organized by Joseph himself. They lived to see 32 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren. Two of their children served missions; one granddaughter and five grandsons also served missions, all returning safely.

Amanda and I visited their graves in the West Warren Cemetery on 24 May 2020. The memorial card at their headstones — the laminated display that prompted much of this research — was photographed that day. Amanda is their 3rd great-granddaughter through the line: Joseph and Ann Wayment → Martha Ann Wayment Hansen → Walter Wayment Hansen → Bryan Hemsley → Amanda Ross.

Bryan Hemsley, Amanda, Aliza, and Hiram Ross with the tombstones of Joseph Wayment and Ann Reed Wayment, West Warren Cemetery, 24 May 2020. — Bryan Hemsley, Amanda, Aliza, and Hiram Ross with the tombstones of Ann Reed (1852–1931) and Joseph Wayment (1844–1931), West Warren Cemetery, 24 May 2020.

The memorial card displayed at the graves of Joseph and Ann Reed Wayment, West Warren Cemetery.

Source Documents

The following family histories are available for download:

Life Sketch of Joseph Wayment – copied from a record belonging to Ida H. Johnson (granddaughter), transcribed by Hollis R. Johnson, 1956

Emily Wayment and William Negus – compiled by Alma W. and Martha M. Hansen, 1979

John Brown Wayment and Sarah East – compiled by Alma W. Hansen, 1980

john_brown_wayment_sarah_east_biography Download

emily_wayment_negus_biography Download

joseph_wayment_life_sketch_1956 Download

Sunday, 19 April 2026 by Sagacity

Ross in Hawaii

I remember Grandpa, Milo James Ross, telling the story of his arrival in Hawaii. He often shared that, upon arriving, he heard over the loudspeakers that he was the father of a new baby boy. Somehow in my mind, I always equated Dad’s birth as the same date Grandpa arrived in Hawaii. Now knowing communications and technology available in 1943, the birth would not have been communicated to Hawaii the same day. The story suggests the birth and related information arrived before Grandpa to Hawaii. But by how much time?

First, Grandpa’s obituary (which I helped write) indicates he enlisted in the Army in October 1942. In the 1997 interview, Grandpa says he went in on “the first draft” shortly after Pearl Harbor (December 1941). He says he was sent to Fort Douglas and shipped out to Fort Lewis the same day. Grandpa also gave me the date for the photo below as 1942, which is almost a year after Pearl Harbor. He was pretty clear to tell me that when he enlisted, he was not aware that Grandma was pregnant. The first draft after Pearl Harbor, whatever that means, seems fairly immediate to me placing enlistment in 1941.

(l-r): Kenneth Barrow, Ellis or Keith Lund, Milo Ross, Jim Jardine, Unknown, Victor Wayment, Earl Collins 16 Oct 1942

The University of Utah Veterans Support Center states Grandpa landed in Hawaii on 4 July 1942. That seems to collaborate the 1997 interview with him enlisting right after Pearl Harbor. I wondered if that was a typo or if they had some records I was not aware. Was he in the army a whole year and just happened to be in Hawaii when the birth was announced?

There had to be some records out there to help clarify or pin down the dates. Military records give the insight needed. It was years since I did this search, and fortunately more records and information are now available. I try to link to them as they are referenced.

The 33rd Infantry Division arrived in Hawaii on 12 July 1943. Multiple independent military history sources — the U.S. Army Center of Military History, Army Divisions records, and others — all confirm this same date. As a reminder, Grandpa was in the 33rd Infantry Division, 130th Regiment, Company C.

The Division’s timeline shows it moved to Fort Lewis in August 1942. In March 1943, after Grandpa arrived in October 1942, the Division moved to Camp Young, California. There it conducted Desert Training Center maneuvers from April to June 1943 and then shipped to Hawaii in July 1943. This follows the pattern in Grandpa’s 1997 interview. (We have many photos of Grandma’s visit to Grandpa at Fort Lewis, I should share some of those.)

Dad was born on 4 July 1943, and the birth announcement came over the loudspeaker as the ship arrived in Hawaii. The official arrival date of 12 July 1943 means the ship would have been at sea on July 4th. “Sergeant Ross, congratulations. Your wife and son are doing well, and, one more thing, before you get off the ship you and your men have guard duty for the next four hours. Welcome to Hawaii.”

Additionally, a detailed record of another soldier, Staff Sergeant Charles Greer, in Company B of the 130th Infantry Regiment confirms the division’s movements through Fort Lewis in September 1942, Camp Clipper/Desert Training Center in early 1943, and onward — matching exactly what Grandpa described in his 1997 interview.

After settling the year, the next question for me was, where did they land in Hawaii and how long were they there? This took some more research to flesh out. I am grateful for those who continue to expand and make available these stories on the internet.

After arrival of the 123rd and 130th Regiments on Oahu in July 1943, the 123rd Regiment was sent to Kauai almost immediately. The 130th Regiment was sent to the Big Island almost immediately and later joined the 123rd on Kauai in December 1943.

Grandpa’s ship likely docked at a port on Oahu, almost certainly Honolulu Harbor. Honolulu was the primary army troop arrival port, rather than Pearl Harbor which was a naval base.

The primary Army installation area on the Big Island was Waikoloa Maneuver Area, near Waimea. Waimea is on the northern part of the island. Waikoloa Maneuver Area, located south of Waimea on Parker Ranch land, was used for live fire exercises in 1943. Camp Tarawa, also in Waimea, was also a major training ground used in late 1943, but primarily by Marines.

Grandpa’s 130th Regiment was almost certainly stationed in the Waimea/Waikoloa before transferring to Kauai in December 1943. I wasn’t able to find a specific named camp for the Army’s 130th Regiment there.

After the 130th joined the 123rd Regiment on Kauai in December 1943, both regiments completed their training and shipped out April 1944 to New Guinea. This comes from the Greer profile, linked above, which noted that on 21 April 1944, the 130th Infantry Regiment sailed from Honolulu to Finschhafen, New Guinea. It took two weeks to get from Honolulu to Finschhafen. Apparently, the 130th traveled on the S.S. Lurline.

The story of Sergeant Philip Beaman matches what Grandpa told in his 1997 interview. During the following months, the men worked to build up the outpost and conducted more amphibious operation training. They were even put to work unloading supplies at the port due to a shortage of stevedores. Grandpa’s account of unloading ships, digging drainage ditches, and building gravel walkways at Finschhafen matches Beaman. According to Beaman, morale suffered badly. According to the division’s own history, The Golden Cross, most men began to feel the division was “World War II’s forgotten unit.” The Division started calling themselves the “4F Division” — the Finschhafen Freight Forward Force.”

The Division arrived at Finschhafen on 11 May 1944 and remained there engaged in jungle and amphibious training. Later in 1944, the Division moved to Morotai Island arriving on 18 December 1944. The Division landed on the west coast without opposition. Grandpa also described in his interview arriving at Morotai, a PT boat mission, the bank robbery incident, booby trap explosion, and guarding the airstrip.

Dexter Kerstetter also served in Company C, 130th Infantry Regiment, with Grandpa. The Japanese had landed a regiment on the island, which lacked heavy weapons but had fortified the thick jungle around Hill 40.

On 10 February 1945, the 33rd Infantry Division landed at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, Philippines. After Lingayen Gulf, Beaman describes combat in the foothills of the Caraballo mountain range, in areas nicknamed Bench Mark and Question Mark. From 19 February onward, there is the drive into the Caraballo Mountains toward Baguio.

Kerstetter’s history continues, that on 13 April 1945, during a battle he advanced ahead of his squad. The forward movement had been halted by intense fire that inflicted casualties. Kerstetter advanced beyond his squad and worked his way up the ridge where Japan’s defenses were located. Japan’s soldiers had the ridgeline defended with machine guns, mortars, and infantry in spider holes. He systematically took out enemy defenses with well-aimed rifle fire and grenades. Climbing above the defenses, he dropped down the ridgeline to destroy a cave entrance defense and its four defenders. He resumed his advance on the ridgeline defenses and next encountered a machine gun position, which he destroyed with accurate rifle fire and a grenade, killing four enemy soldiers. Kerstetter then fired on about 20 of Japan’s soldiers behind the main line of defense, scattering them. Out of ammunition, he returned to his squad for resupply. Having good knowledge concerning the locations of Japanese defenses, he led a platoon to the ridgeline and on the way took out a rifle position. The platoon was able to secure the ridgeline. Kerstetter killed 16 Japanese soldiers that day. Company C then held the hill, deterring Japanese counterattacks. During a counterattack two days later on 15 April 1945, Kerstetter was wounded in the leg by sniper fire and sent to a field hospital. He was promoted to sergeant and recommended for the Medal of Honor.

Grandpa being in the same Company was likely involved in some way with much of Kerstetter’s history. The Greer article places the 1st Battalion of the 130th Infantry fighting on Hill 1802 in the Labayug-Alibeng area from 23-25 February 1945. That is just two weeks after landing. The book about the 33rd Division places Hills X and Y in the Kennon Road fighting of late February to March 1945. It was Hill X that gave Grandpa the Silver Star and the whole Unit received the Presidential Citation. Shortly after Hill X Grandpa was wounded while tending to other soldiers who were awaiting medical attention. All this brutal mountain fighting took place on the approaches to Baguio.

Grandpa spent several weeks in recovery. University of Utah says two months, but that cannot be accurate. By mid April 1945 the 130th Infantry Regiment called in air support to help rifle companies get through a network of fortified hills. The fighter-bombers broke Japanese resistance and the 130th finally got across the river. The 33rd Infantry Division liberated what was left of Baguio on 26 April 1945. Grandpa indicates he was present for that liberation, which puts his recovery time at only a couple of weeks, not a full two months.

After Baguio, there was plenty of mopping up work required. The Division mopped up isolated pockets of Japanese troops around Baguio and captured the San Nicholas–Tebbo–Itogon route on 12 May 1945. Fighting continued and on 6 June 1945, Company I of the 130th Regiment was given a Medal of Honor for their activities near Tabio, Luzon. Grandpa indicates he was present at the Japanese surrender at Luzon in June 1945.

On 30 June 1945, all elements of the 33rd Division went to rest and rehabilitation areas. The division then landed on Honshū Island, Japan on 25 September 1945 and performed occupation duties until it was deactivated in early 1946. While the Division performed occupation duties, Grandpa had been honorably discharged 30 September 1945 and shipped home.

I am posting this article ahead of the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Baguio City.

Sunday, 15 March 2026 by Sagacity

More Donaldson Pictures

Scanning and working through the photos of Dave & Betty Donaldson continues to be a gold mine. While many of the photos are more routine or mundane, once and a while a few pop up that are an insight into the past we did not previously have. Here are some of those photos. I hope there are even more yet to be found.

Likely in southern California, Dave looks like a young teenager. Dave was born in 1928, I guess he is about 12-14 in the photo.

Maxine, Gladys, Dave, Dena and Dora Donaldson

This photo is fun as it shows a glimpse into the young Donaldson family kids. I don’t have many photos of my Grandma Gladys and every extra one gives more reality to her childhood. Dave was born in 1928, I am guessing he is about 7 or 8 here. Even though Dena and Dora are twins, you can tell they are not identical. I still cannot tell them apart though. I love the wallpaper advertisement in the back ground. It looks like the boonies, but close enough to town to have a large sign advertising wallpaper.

What is the Donaldson family doing in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California in 1932? What is the occasion? Who were they visiting? The neighborhood looks nice. They are dressed nice too.

Dave & Betty Donaldson in Jackson, Wyoming

It looks like a fun ride, but Betty also seems to be holding on extra tight.

This photo is a bit of an enigma to me. I believe this is a pre-war Milo Ross. I haven’t seen this photo before. But why would Dave & Betty have it in their possession, how did they get it if it predates my Grandma Gladys? The hat is similar to some other photos I have seen.

You can see both of these two photos have Grandpa with probably the same hat. The last one, with the horse in the field, probably dates this into the 1930s. I don’t know how to track down that planter and date it. But I am guessing late 1930s, maybe early 1940s.

Here is another with the same gun.

John Telford, Jan Birch, Richard Michaelson, Milo Ross

This photo was a delight. Another young photo of my Dad with his first cousins. I am guessing he is 6 or 7, so about 1950-1951.

My Great Grandma Berendena Van Leeuwen Donaldson with Eddie, Irene, Mary, and John Telford

Dena Michaelson and Berendena Donaldson at Will Rogers house (that I believe burned down in 2025)

Dena Donaldson and Dena Michaelson at their home in California. Interesting partial reflections in the water on the sidewalk.

David Donaldson and friends in San Francisco.

This photo appears to be a postcard of sorts. Here is the back of it.

The back gives us more information. The date – 11 December 1917. Taken at 225 Market Street, San Francisco, California. Jack and Byron both appear to have signed their names, but the rest of the writing is David’s. David and Jack are from Ogden, Utah. Byron is from Evanston, Wyoming. I don’t know which is Byron and which is Jack. I also cannot tell Jack’s last name and have been unable to locate something that matches. Kielman? Kiefman? Kilfner?

I located Byron Powell, born 21 July 1894 in Winters Quarter, Carbon, Utah and died 12 September 1957 in Ogden. Byron registered for the military draft in Uinta County, Wyoming, which includes Evanston in 1917-1918.

Dena, Dave, Dora, Maxine, David inside vehicle, and Gladys Donaldson on a trip

Again, I don’t know for certain which is Dora and which is Dena. But another fun photo of my Grandma I did not have before.

I don’t know where this photo is from, but I believe it is somewhere in southern Utah. Probably near or in Zions National Park.

Sunday, 8 March 2026 by Sagacity

Plain City Takes Titles in Baseball

I hope some day to find a better copy of this newspaper clipping.

Back (l-r): Ben Van Shaar, Ervin Heslop, Ellis Stewart, Kenneth Taylor, Don Gibson, John Reese; Middle: Frank Hadley, Howard Wayment, Wayne Rose, Ray Charlton; Front: Keith Hodson, Howard Hunt, Wayne Carver, Lyle Thompson, Milo Ross

Presenting the City-County Baseball Champions… Plain City junior diamond athletes romped away with the county title for 1937 and walloped Lewis junior, Ogden city champions, in a title city-county event last week.

Wayne McLean Carver, athletic manager (1923 – 2015)

Ray S Charlton, second base (1920 – 1991)

Don Hipwell Gibson, catcher (1920 – 1975)

Frank Howard Hadley, third base (1921 – 2008)

Ervin George Heslop, center field (1921 – 2017)

Benjamin Keith Hodson, center field (1920 – 2010)

Howard Hunt, right fielder (1921 – 1944)

John Major Reese, principal (1896 – 1976)

Wayne East Rose, first base (1921 – 2017)

Milo Ross, pitcher (1921 – 2014)

Ellis Wayment Stewart, shortstop (1921 – 1940)

Kenneth Paul Taylor, right field (1922 – 1996)

James Lyle Thompson, left field (1921 – 1999)

Howard George Wayment, left field (1922 – 2001)

Bernard Henry Van Shaar, coach (1909 – 2001)

Sunday, 1 March 2026 by Sagacity

In re Sprague

Decision: In re Jarred A. Sprague and Elizabeth J. Sprague, Case No. 12-41099-JDP (Bankr. D. Idaho, 18 December 2013)
Judge: Honorable Jim D. Pappas, United States Bankruptcy Judge
Counsel for Debtors: Paul Ross, Idaho Bankruptcy Law, Paul, Idaho
Chapter 13 Trustee: Kathleen A. McCallister, Meridian, Idaho
Trustee’s Counsel: Alexandra O. Caval, Meridian, Idaho

Background

Jarred and Elizabeth Sprague filed a Chapter 13 petition on 2 August 2012. Their plan was confirmed on 12 October 2012, and the bar date for non-governmental creditors to file proofs of claim passed on 3 December 2012. Under Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure (“FRBP”) 3004, the Debtors or Trustee had an additional 30 days — until 2 January 2013 — to file a proof of claim on behalf of any creditor that failed to do so.

The debt at issue arose in May 2009, when U.S. Bank closed Ms. Sprague’s bank account after a scam check deposited into the account bounced. Neither U.S. Bank nor its collection assignee, National Law Group (“NLG”), reported the resulting deficiency to any credit reporting agency, and neither contacted Ms. Sprague after the account was closed. When the Debtors compiled their bankruptcy schedules, they relied heavily on their credit reports — which showed no debt to U.S. Bank — and the obligation was omitted entirely from their filings.

In August 2013 — more than a year after the bar date — NLG contacted Ms. Sprague’s employer seeking to collect. Upon learning of the omitted debt, the Debtors promptly amended Schedule F to list U.S. Bank and NLG as creditors, served them with notice of the bankruptcy, and filed a motion to enlarge the time to file a proof of claim on their behalf under FRBP 3004 and FRBP 9006(b)(1).

The Trustee’s Objection

Trustee objected on several grounds. First, she argued the Debtors had not met the “excusable neglect” standard required under FRBP 9006(b)(1) to justify enlarging the FRBP 3004 deadline after its expiration. Relying on In re Schuster, 428 B.R. 833 (Bankr. E.D. Wis. 2010) — the only reported decision she could locate addressing this precise issue — the Trustee argued that the Debtors’ reason for delay was insufficient, as the account closure in 2009 should have put Ms. Sprague on notice that a claim might exist.

Second, the Trustee argued that granting the motion would prejudice the existing pool of unsecured creditors, who held approximately $37,894 in claims and whose pro-rata distributions would be reduced by the addition of a new creditor more than a year into the plan. She further contended that the omitted creditor itself would be prejudiced because its debt would be discharged upon plan completion — a result she argued was impermissible under 11 U.S.C. §§ 1328(a)(2) and 523(a)(3), which exclude from Chapter 13 discharge debts that are neither listed nor scheduled in time to permit a timely proof of claim.

The Debtors’ Brief

Debtors filed a detailed brief through their counsel addressing each of the Trustee’s arguments.

On the procedural question, Debtors’ counsel confirmed that FRBP 3004’s deadline, unlike FRBP 3002(c)’s creditor bar date, is not enumerated in FRBP 9006(b)(3)’s list of deadlines that can only be extended under their own specific conditions. FRBP 9006(b)(1) therefore applies, and the Court may enlarge the FRBP 3004 deadline upon a showing of excusable neglect.

On excusable neglect, Debtors distinguished Schuster on its facts. In Schuster, the debtor had purchased appliances on credit — physical items that provided tangible, ongoing reminders of an unpaid debt — yet still claimed to have forgotten the obligation. Here, by contrast, the Debtors had no collateral, no invoices, no collection contacts, and no credit report entry to put them on notice. Ms. Sprague did not merely forget a debt she knew existed — she was genuinely unaware that any debt was owed. Upon learning of it, she and her husband acted immediately. Debtors’ counsel also identified three unreported decisions from the District of Utah in which courts had granted similar enlargements under comparable circumstances.

On the Trustee’s standing to seek a non-dischargeability determination, Debtors argued that the Trustee lacked both constitutional and prudential standing to raise a dischargeability objection on behalf of a specific creditor. Dischargeability is a particularized right belonging to the individual creditor, not a general estate matter the Trustee may assert.

On dischargeability itself, Debtors argued that § 523(a)(3) would not apply if the Court granted the enlargement. If the time to file a proof of claim on behalf of NLG were enlarged under FRBP 9006(b)(1), the claim would be deemed timely filed under FRBP 3004, included in the plan’s pro-rata distribution to general unsecured creditors, and “provided for” under the plan within the meaning of § 1328(a). The harm § 523(a)(3) is designed to prevent — a creditor being denied both payment and discharge — would not exist.

The Court’s Ruling

Judge Pappas granted the Debtors’ motion in its entirety. Applying the four-factor equitable test from Pioneer Investment Services Co. v. Brunswick Associates Ltd. Partnership, 507 U.S. 380 (1993), the Court found that each factor weighed in the Debtors’ favor.

On prejudice, the Court found the impact on other unsecured creditors to be minimal. The omitted claim was approximately $1,500 in a pool of roughly $37,894 in unsecured debt — a modest reduction in pro-rata distributions that no creditor had objected to. As for the omitted creditor itself, the Court found it would actually benefit from having its claim filed and paid, rather than being left entirely outside the plan.

On the length and reason for delay, the Court found the delay understandable and outside the Debtors’ reasonable control. The creditor had made no contact for over four years, reported nothing to credit agencies, and provided no basis for the Debtors to know the debt existed. Upon learning of it, the Debtors acted promptly.

On good faith, the Court found no basis to question it — a conclusion the Trustee herself did not dispute.

The Court also expressly disagreed with the Trustee’s dischargeability argument, declining to follow Schuster on that point. Because the Court was enlarging the time to file a proof of claim under 11 U.S.C. § 501(c) and FRBP 3004 and 9006(b)(1), the creditor’s claim would be treated as timely filed. The Court doubted that §§ 1328(a)(2) and 523(a)(3)(A) compelled a contrary result under those circumstances, though it declined to rule definitively on the discharge issue as it was not formally before it.

The Order gave the Debtors fourteen days from 18 December 2013 to file the proof of claim for U.S. Bank.

Why This Matters

1. FRBP 9006(b)(1) can enlarge the FRBP 3004 deadline. Unlike the creditor bar date under FRBP 3002(c) — which is expressly restricted from enlargement except under its own terms by FRBP 9006(b)(3) — FRBP 3004’s debtor/trustee claim-filing window is not enumerated in FRBP 9006(b)(3). Courts therefore retain discretion to enlarge it upon a showing of excusable neglect. This is a critical distinction practitioners must understand when an omitted creditor surfaces mid-case.

2. Excusable neglect is highly fact-specific. The contrast between this case and Schuster illustrates how much the reason for delay matters in the excusable neglect analysis under Pioneer. A debtor who genuinely lacked knowledge of a debt — with no collateral, no billing, and no credit report entry — is in a materially different position than one who simply forgot about a known obligation.

3. Acting promptly upon discovery is essential. The Debtors’ immediate response — amending their schedules, serving the creditor, and filing the motion — was central to the Court’s good faith finding. Delay after discovery would have significantly weakened the equitable case for enlargement.

4. The Trustee lacks standing to raise dischargeability on behalf of a single creditor. A Chapter 13 trustee does not have constitutional or prudential standing to seek a dischargeability determination on behalf of a specific creditor. That creditor’s own silence — it filed no objection — reinforced the point.

5. Timely filing cures the § 523(a)(3) problem. Where a court enlarges the FRBP 3004 deadline and the debtor files a proof of claim on the omitted creditor’s behalf, that claim becomes timely for plan purposes. The debt is then “provided for” under § 1328(a), resolving the non-dischargeability concern under § 523(a)(3). Inclusion in the plan is the better outcome for all parties.

Full Decision: Available on PACER, Case No. 12-41099-JDP, Doc. 54 (Bankr. D. Idaho 18 December 2013)
Order Granting Motion: Doc. 55 (Bankr. D. Idaho 18 December 2013)

Enlargement Memorandum Download

Sunday, 15 February 2026 by Sagacity

David & Sarah Buttar

Hiram, Amanda, James, and Aliza Ross at the grave of David and Sarah Buttar in Clarkston, Utah – August 2021

I moved this history up in my list because I know two other descendants of David and Sarah Buttar who live near us. My wife and children are descendants of David and Sarah Buttar’s daughter, Emma Jane, who married David Crompton Thompson.

Amanda and Hiram Ross at the graves of David and Emma Thompson in Clarkston, Utah – August 2021

There are a couple of histories out there for David and Sarah Buttar. They seem to descend from a common history. There are a couple of differences and disputes, which I will point out.

David Buttar was born 2 December 1822 in Perthshire, Scotland to Donald Buttar and Elspeth Rattray. David’s death certificate and a Scottish family record give his father’s name as Daniel rather than Donald; all other sources use Donald. Some family records give Elspeth another first name of Betheah, but no contemporary record provides such a name. Although through the years, she was referred to as Betty. Some of the Buttar family records show the name. Her parents did not provide it on official records and she did not use it in her life for official purposes.

No contemporary record gives David’s birth location. He was christened 12 December 1822 in Rattray, Perthshire, Scotland. Family records show him as born in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland. His death certificate, the information coming from his surviving spouse, Sarah Keep Buttar, gives this location too.

Donald, David’s father, was a tailor by trade. David was the youngest child of his father’s family. Both Donald and David apprenticed to become shoe makers. In Blairgowrie, David ran a substantial shoemaking business, employing and boarding some fifteen persons. David followed the shoe maker trade in both Scotland and in the United States. David was brought up in a religious home. He was also musical playing the bellows on the local Presbyterian Church’s pipe organ and the flute for the choir. His father, Donald, died at the age of 83 when David was 12 years old.

In 1848, at the age of 26, David married Margaret Spalding in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland (there are disputes on the actual date, so I left it generic). On 19 January 1851, David was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Margaret was initially resistant to the gospel. Elizabeth Graham Macdonald, a recent convert who boarded with the Buttars family in Blairgowrie while her missionary husband was away in the Highlands, worked to bring Margaret to an understanding of the gospel. Margaret was baptized in November 1851. David was ordained a priest in 1854. In February of that same year, David left Scotland for America with his wife and their four small children: Marjory, Meek, Bethea, and David. They sailed from Liverpool on the ship John M. Wood, arriving in New Orleans in May 1854. While at sea the youngest child David died. Family tradition holds a more harrowing account — that the parents initially kept the baby’s body rather than commit it to the sea, but that sharks began circling the ship in such numbers that the crew made a frantic search for the cause and found the child. The parents were compelled to give up the child to the deep. Whether the full family account is accurate in all its details, the loss of their infant son at sea was a grief the family carried with them to Utah. The journey by sea to America from Scotland took seven weeks and two days.

David and his family traveled across the plains by ox cart with the Taylor Company. (Other sources identify the plains company as Captain William Empey’s Company, one of the final wagon companies to cross the plains that year.) While on the plains, cholera erupted amongst the company and David became very ill and nearly died. It took him some time to get over the effects of cholera. David and his family had to walk most of the way to Utah. On the plains David had two remarkable encounters with rattlesnakes. One day while gathering firewood he picked up a rattlesnake among the sticks and carried it quite a distance in his arms without realizing it — discovering it only when he laid the wood down. On another occasion he made his bed under the wagon and in the morning, upon rolling up his bedroll, found that a rattlesnake had slept curled beneath him through the night. Neither snake harmed him. David would not kill rattlesnakes and said of them, “they didn’t harm me and they won’t hurt anyone else if they leave them along.”

Sarah’s history is shared below that includes stories of crossing the plains. Sarah mentions she traveled “first with Father and Mother… in Pratt’s Company, then Captain Inkley came to bring the sick in” — her journey in 1866 was separate from David’s 1854 journey.

The family arrived in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1854. They lived in Salt Lake City for five months where David worked as a shoemaker for a Brother Samuel Mellener. David then moved his family to Lehi, Utah. After moving to Lehi, David continued working for Brother Mellener. David did not have a method of transportation and had to walk from Lehi to Salt Lake to pick up leather for his shoes and return the finished shoes to Brother Mellener. There were times when he was able to secure a ride to Salt Lake. After a few years, David was able to raise some calves that, once grown, were able to supply a team of oxen for transportation. In Lehi the family lived in a mud house with a dirt floor. David also began to farm in Lehi. In the year 1856, all the crops in Lehi were eaten by grasshoppers and the family had no flour. Because of the flour shortage, bran bread was made.

In August 1863, Margaret died several days after giving birth, leaving David with six small children. The oldest girl was only fourteen years old and the baby, Margaret, was five days old. Baby Margaret died two weeks after her mother and was buried in the Lehi cemetery. David experienced sad, hard times and, having no family nearby to assist him with the children. Four years later on 16 December 1866 he married Sarah Keep Francis. Sarah had previously been married in England to Thomas Robert Francis, but had left him behind before coming to the United States. Family history records that Francis was fond of drink and ultimately died in the Poor House. Sarah had a daughter of her own, Lucy Ann Francis, who David always regarded as his own daughter. On April 16, 1868, a daughter, Sarah Isabell, was born. Sadly, Sarah Isabell died on June 15th. Sarah Isabell was buried in the Lehi cemetery.

In October of 1868, the family moved to Clarkston in Cache Valley of Utah. David was ordained an Elder that same fall. Upon arriving in Clarkston, David built a two room log house in the Clarkston Fort. In 1870, David moved from the fort and built another two-room log home on the north side of Clarkston near his farm. He raised cows, horses, sheep, pigs, and chickens on their farm.

Buttar home north of Clarkston, Thomas James in front of the house, David Alexander next to the right, then James Joseph, then David, then Emma Jane, Sarah, and Mary

In 1882, David and Sarah built a large, white framed house for the family. The two-story home had a porch on the front, three dormer windows on the second floor facing east, and two dormer windows facing south with a veranda below. It was a large home for the standards at that time. It was a beautiful home that overlooked the farm and had a commanding view of the valley. The first prayer circle in Clarkston was held in an upstairs room of that home, and was kept there for three years and four months before being moved to the new Tithing House. Unfortunately, this beautiful home burned on 11 May 1931.

David became a high priest. He believed in paying an honest tithing, knowing that the Lord keeps his promises by opening the windows of heaven to pour out blessing on all that keep his laws and commandments. This was proved to David in the spring of 1871 when the grasshoppers were so thick that when in flight they darkened the sun. Three times that summer the grasshoppers ate all of David’s grain. When they came the fourth time, with the help of his children, the grasshoppers were driven into ditches where the chickens would devour them. The grasshoppers were so large that the chickens could only eat three or four at a time. David told his family that because he had paid his tithing that the Lord would provide for them. It was then that the seagulls came and began eating the grasshoppers until they could eat no more. When the seagulls had eaten their fill, they would go to the ditch and throw up the grasshoppers and then continue to eat more. Once the grasshoppers were completely devoured, the seagulls flew away. This time the grain grew to maturity and David produced 1,300 bushels of grain – the largest crop he had ever harvested up to that time.

When David first began to farm in Clarkston, he cut his grain with a “cradle”, after a few years he purchased a “dropper” to cut the grain. He hired six men to flail and bind the grain. David would cure his wheat for planting with slack-lime, and he would sow his seeds by hand casting them.

David continued to make shoes for the first few years in Clarkston, but the last shoes he made were for his step-daughter, Lucy Anne, and he purposely made one that was wrong-side-out and stated that “he wouldn’t make any more shoes”, and he never did.

David would mend his harnesses with wooden, maple pegs that were actually intended as tacks to hang shoes on. He planted five to ten acres of potatoes each year. Although for the first few years hay had to be bound by hand, David purchased the first self-binder in Clarkston that bound the hay with wire. Later, he assisted Andrew Heggie and Peter S Barson in buying the first header in Clarkston.

One year the sunflowers had grown so profusely in the wheat that when the threshers came, they refused to thresh it. He made a flail and flailed all the wheat by hand on a wagon cover. After the grain was harvested, David had to haul it some 60 miles (each way) to Corinne or Ogden by team and wagon just to sell it.

During the construction of the Logan Temple, David donated $100 each year until the temple was completed. He did temple work for many of his ancestors in the Logan Temple. He also gave financial assistance to build the old rock meeting house in Clarkston as well as the new chapel that is still standing in Clarkston today (although it has undergone several additions and renovations since then). On 1 June 1882, David received a federal land patent signed by President Chester A. Arthur for approximately 160 acres in Cache County, Utah Territory, formally securing title to his Clarkston farm.

In 1884, David married Sophia Jensen Hansen in plural marriage. He lived in polygamy for 20 years. David and Sophia were later divorced, though David continued to provide for her financially each year until her death in 1909. In 1889, polygamists were advised by the authorities of the Church to give themselves up instead of being hunted down by the law. On the first of June 1889, David gave himself up. Because of his age (67), he was not required to serve the usual six months jail sentence. He paid, instead, a $100 fine and returned home a happy man.

Back (l-r): William Sparks, Hans Jensen, Lucy Ann Francis, Robert Buttar, John Buttar, Daniel Buttar, Elizabeth Buttar, Charles Buttar, Margaret Cutler, Will Sparks; Sitting: Emma Gover, Sarah Buttar, David Buttar, Sarah Keep Buttar, Karen Buttar

On 30 May 1899, David, his wife Sarah, their son Charles and a niece Mary Ann Jenkins, had all attended the Logan Temple. While driving across the Bear River Bridge on their return trip home to Clarkston, the bridge broke and the buggy, horses, and all the people went into the water. Beams and iron from the bridge pinned the occupants in the water. Charles, while trying to free Sarah, saw the Jenkins baby floating downstream and caught its clothing just before it floated under the broken bridge, saving its life. Sarah received a severe blow to the head, cutting a gash in her scalp, knocking out her teeth, and injuring her internally. David’s shoulder was also severely injured. William Bingham and William Thain, who were working in a field nearby, heard the cries for help and came to pull everyone from the river. Bingham then rode to Logan for a doctor. Sarah was taken home to Clarkston unconscious. William Bingham, who had so bravely rescued her and the others, thought that surely she had died and came to Clarkston a few days later to attend her funeral. It would be an understatement to say that he was quite surprised to find no funeral transpiring, as Sarah was alive and well. Sarah did report afterward of having an out-of-body experience during the near-drowning incident and spoke of the beautiful things she witnessed on the other side of the veil.

In 1909, David contributed $200 to President Budge of the Logan Temple. President Budge gratefully said that the donation was an answer to prayers, as money was needed to purchase a new rug (carpet) to replace carpet that had been burned in a recent temple fire. President Budge gave David a priesthood blessing which pleased David greatly. David also stated that he thought that would be his last donation to the temple – and it was. On November 23, 1911, David passed away from eye cancer at the age of 89. He was laid to rest in the Clarkston Cemetery. A beautiful, majestic monument has been erected to his memory at his burial site.

Was David a Buttar or Buttars? His christening record prepared by the church has Butter, likely from the mouth of his father. It does not show as plural. When David was married to his first wife, Margaret Spalding, the church recorded his name as David Buttar. Another record, likely created from his own dictation to the individual creating the record. The 1860 Census, probably from someone else’s mouth, has Buttar. But yet, 1870, probably from someone else’s mouth, has Buttars. It goes back and forth. 1910 Census – Buttars. Death certificate for Charles William Buttar – father is David Buttar – Sarah Keep Buttar completed this death certificate information (but Charles’ grave marker has Buttars). The death certificate for his wife, Sarah Keep Buttar – has his name as David Buttars. Alternatively, when he died, Sarah Keep Buttar provided the death certificate information and provided his name as David Buttar. But, when she applied for the Daughters of the Pioneers, she wrote Buttars. Ultimately, some of his siblings and own children used both variations. There are likely other records, but it appears at this time the records created by him in his own life show Buttar. Lastly, when he died, the family listed Buttar on the tombstone (as seen above). But since his christening record (provided by his parents), marriage certificate (provided by him), and his death certificate (provided by his wife) all list Buttar, along with his tombstone, I will go with Buttar for this history.

David has an entry in Pioneers and Prominent Men in Utah.

“Buttar, David (son of Daniel Buttar and Batheah Rattray, born 1788, both of Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Scotland. Born Dec. 2, 1822 at Blairgowrie. Came to Utah November, 1854, Capt. Taylor Company.

“Married Margaret Spalding Dec. 14, 1848, in Scotland (daughter of John Spalding and Marjory Meek Johnson), who was born April 1, 1822, and came to Utah with husband. Their children; Marjory Meek Johnson b. Sep. 16, 1849, m. Henry Mullet December, 1866; m. Joseph J. Harrison 1869; Batheah b. July 15, 1851, m. William Sparks Dec. 15, 1868; David b. November, 1863, d. February, 1854 [sic]; John Spalding b. May 22, 1856, m. Sarah L. Tanner Jan. 1, 1880; Daniel b. Sept. 22, 1858, m. Emma Gover January, 1883; Robert Sutter b. April 6, 1861, m. Mary Godfrey 1891; Margaret b. Aug. 6, 1863, d. infant. Family home Lehi, Utah.

“Married Sarah Keep Dec. 16, 1866, at Lehi (daughter of James Joseph Keep (high priest) and Ann Miller; married July 22, 1836; pioneers Oct. 22, 1866, Abner Lowry company. She was the widow of Thomas Francis, married May 15, 1865, and mother of Lucy Ann Francis, born March 26, 1866, who married Hans Jensen July, 1884). She was born June 28, 1840, Greenham, Berkshire, Eng. Their children: Sarah Isabell Buttar, b. April 16, 1868, d. June 15, 1868; Elizabeth Keep b. June 9, 1869, m. John Loosle Dec. 3, 1891; Charles William b. June 15, 1871, m. Angeline Stuart May 18, 1892; Thomas James b. Oct. 13, 1873, m. Annie Loosle; David Alexander b. Dec. 14, 1876, m. Rose Loosle; James Joseph Keep b. Feb. 26, 1878, m. Agnes Jordan; Mary Janet b. June 30, 1880, m. Louis Thompson; Emma Jane b. Oct. 8, 1882, m. David Thompson. Family home Clarkston, Utah.

“Settled at Clarkston 1868. High priest. Shoemaker; farmer. Died Nov. 23. 1911.

Back (l-r): James Joseph, David Alexander, Emma Jane, Daniel, Mary Janet, Robert Sutter, Lucy Ann, Charles William, Thomas James; Front: Elizabeth, Sarah, David, and John Spalding

The Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah biography gives a good overview of David’s family.

This editorial obituary also provided some insights into David.

“CLARKSTON, Nov. 27 – Never has a departing member of the Clarkston ward had greater honor shown him than that which has been bestowed upon our departed friend and brother, David Buttars; a true and honest man in every relation in life.

“The funeral services, held Sunday afternoon, had a very large attendance, there being relatives and friends from Salt Lake, and from all parts of this county, present, besides the very large neighborhood attendance. Twenty-one members of the ward choir were present, and rendered some fine selections. The floral emblems were numerous and most beautiful. Bishop Ravsten presided. The choir sang, “Farewell all Earthly Honors” and Elder William Griffin of Newton offered the opening prayer. The choir then sang, “Rest For the Weary Soul,” following which the following brethren offered words of praise for the departed, and of hope and condolence to the living: Prest. Roskelley, John E. Griffin of Newton, and C. P. Anderson. The choir then sang: “It is Well With my Soul.” Prest. Skidmore, Elder Burnham and Bishop Ravsten then added their testimony of the worth of the departed; the last named speaker proclaiming the deceased a full tithe payer, a blessing in and to the ward, and a faithful Latter-day Saint. The choir sang “Shall I Receive a Welcome Home.”

“Nearly forty vehicles followed the remains to their last resting place, where Bishop Ravsten dedicated the grave. Six stalwart sons: John, Daniel, Robert, Thomas, David and James, acted as pall-bearers. These, with a loving wife and four daughters, and a host of children and grandchildren are left to mourn his loss.

“Brother Buttars was eighty-nine years old at the time of his death. He was born in Scotland, but had lived in Utah since the year 1854. Following his arrival he lived in Salt Lake for a short time, then moved to Lehi. Leaving Lehi he came to Clarkston of which he was a resident for more than forty years; passing through all the toils and hardships that constituted the lot of our pioneers. He was always in the front rank of progress and helped make Clarkston the desirable place it is today. He was charitable to the poor, and a liberal contributor to missionary, and all other beneficent funds and works. His memory will be kept green at least so long as the present generation lives. Among other good works he officiated in the Logan Temple for more than eleven hundred of his deceased kindred.

Back (l-r): Margaret Priscilla Buttars, George Alfred Sparks, David Sparks, (photo of James & Ann Keep), Thomas James Buttars, David Alexander Buttars, James Joseph Buttars, Mary Janet Buttars; Front: Rachel Betheah Buttars, Margaret Sarah Buttars, Daniel David Buttars, Melvin Henry Buttars, David William Buttars, Thomas Hans Jensen, and Emma Jane Buttars

David and Sarah Keep were married 16 December 1866 in Lehi, Utah. David and Sarah received their endowments in the Salt Lake City Endowment House on 14 December 1868. David and Margaret, and David and Sarah were also sealed the same day in the Endowment House. I am not clear if Margaret was initially endowed on 14 December 1868 and the record was lost, but the work is officially shown as completed for Margaret on 5 June 1884 in the Logan Temple. David married Karen Sophia Jensen 11 June 1884 in Logan, Cache, Utah at the Temple.

Handwritten biography of David Buttar by Sarah Buttar after his passing

This biography added some other interesting insights, particularly of his death. Sounds like a painful process, even if the final passing was like going to sleep.

Buttar home, Thomas, Elizabeth, Sarah, David Alexander, Mary, James Joseph, Emma Jane, David, and unknown

“A sketch of Sarah Keep Buttars life up to the age of 82 which I Sarah write myself, I was born the 28th of June 1840 at Stroudgreen, Greenham, Berkshire, England. Daughter of James Joseph Keep and Ann Miller Keep.

“I was christened in the Church of England, and learned all the Collicks, Hymns, Prayers and Chants, I can yet repeat some of them. I was naturally religious and when eight years of age the Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came and stood outside my Fathers gate and preached. My Mother was brought up a staunch Baptist and my Father belonged to the Church of England. Mother didn’t understand the teachings of the Elders as soon as my Father did. One Sunday Morning the Elders came to preach in front of our house and Father took a bench out for all to sit on. Father believed in their teachings and one Sunday morning, 23 July 1848, he crept out of bed and was baptized without any of us knowing it. When he came back mother knew he had been baptized, and came upstairs and told us children to call out “You have been by the Latter Day Saints haven’t you?” Father told Mother if she would go to the Latter Day Saints Church with him he would go to the Baptist Chapel with her sometimes.

“One day they were too late for the Baptist meeting and Father ask Mother to go the Latter Day Saint meeting, and she went with him and soon after she joined the church. After joining the Church they lost everything, their home, and five other houses they owned. Then they had to pay rent, after this the Elders came to our house and held their meetings. Then I was baptize the date being February 1849 the ice was broken for me. I had to walk home on and one half miles under Mother’s cloak in my wet clothes, because the mob was calling my Father, “Curley Keep”, the Latter Day Devil to let a little girl like me be dipped.

“In 1850 we all had the smallpox, my eldest brother James Joseph Keep died from smallpox 25 February 1850, my Mother was also very sick with the smallpox.

“We were very poor and when my baby sister Harriet was born the 8th of March 1850, my Mother had a cancer in her breast and Father wanted to get a Doctor, but Mother wanted the Elders, so my sister and I went for the Elders, they administered to her and anointed her breast and the cancer went away, and she was never bothered with it again, this strengthened my faith in the gospel and I became more religious and what I learned I did not forget. I was taught to learn and repeat verses of the Bible when in Sunday School and at home. As I grew older I traveled much with my Father and his companion. When they went out preaching in the open air I was always anxious to go, and they said I could go if I could sing for them which I did. People gathered to listen to their teachings and many joined the church. My Father and his companion and I suffered many persecutions but the Lord preserved us from our enemies.

“At the age of thirteen I went to London with my father and his companion I sang in the streets of London, we were often told by the police to move on.

“At the age of eighteen I was self willed, and thought about marriage, my Father told us older girls not to get married until we came to the New Valley. Although I had great desire to get to the valley, thinking it would be “Heaven on Earth” yet I thought I would please myself. At this time I had a dream and was shown the route to the valley. The American Elders said when I related it to them that it was truly the route to the valley, in the dream I saw high mountains and the plains, and as I passed on walking I came to a beautiful green meadow, and I heard Heavenly Music and Singing. I saw on the top of the high mountain a very elderly looking man and he was dressed in a long robe, his beard and hair was long and white, he was winding some silver piping on top of the mountain, the sun shown on him so bright that it dazzled my eyes and just at that time a woman passed by me, then I saw a gate leading into the meadow, and there was a gatekeeper, the woman went up to the gate he told her she would have to have her blessing before she could go through, he beckoned to the man on the top of the mountain and he came down and gave her a wonderful blessing he beckoned to the man again and he came and laid his hands on my head and told me to honor my father and my Mother that my days may be long up on the land which the Lord they giveth thee, he said go thy ways and obey they parents in all things. I didn’t think I had as good of a blessing as the woman that passed through before me and when the gate keeper said you can now go into the meadow I said, “I do not want to, for he did not give me as good of a blessing as that woman had, and I did not want to go in.”

“He said, “You had what you deserved,” then I went back and I saw a house where there was dancing and I could hear music, I thought I heard my sister’s voice, and I went up to the door, there were two door keepers, and they gave me a push and said, “You can’t come in here,” I fell down the steps, when I got up I turned to the meadow again and I sat down and cried bitterly, when I awoke my pillow was very wet, I saw that I was going to do something wrong and afterward I knew what it was.

“At the age of twenty five I married against my Father’s and Mother’s wishes and they didn’t know it for six weeks, then to my sorrow I found that my husband had just joined to church to get me, for my Father said I should not marry anyone out of the church, this was his council and I disobeyed him. When I was married my husband told me that it was once my day but now it was his day, he let me know it at a later time.

“In 1866 my Father and Mother were going to the Valley, and I could not go, my husband said if I went to see my Father off he would push me overboard, but the Lord helped me. My Mother and Father told me if I would go with them and leave my husband they would pay me for it, I could see I would never get there the way my husband was acting so I gave my word to go. I left him although it was very hard to part. I kept my word and obeyed my parents, and like in my dream I shed many tears, I did not tell my husband that I was going and he seemed kinder that day then ever before, which made it more hard for me to endure, but I prepared everything as though I was going back home that night, he ask if he should come for me and carry the baby, I said no it might be late when my Aunt leaves, and I may stay at Mother’s all night.

“The next morning finding I did not go home he went to Mother’s and not finding me there he sent a man dressed in pilots clothes to the ship to find me, he questioned me as to where I was going with such a young baby and at that I hardly told him, when he said are going alone, my Mother said “NO” for I was going with my Father and my Brother-in-law, meaning my sister’s husband, he said “OH” and up the companion ladder, I told Mother I was afraid my Husband would come, I passed my baby over to the other side of the ship, I got into the berth of a young couple that had a feather bed in one corner and I crept down behind it. Three policeman came and looked in every berth and did not see me, they were after two apprentices, and four more sisters, and one brother that were leaving husband and wives, they never got any of us, but the two apprentices went back.

“We set sail 23 May 1866 on the American Congress. When at sea we were tossed about and nearly all become seasick. I was blessed by having only three days of seasickness, Father and Mother and my two younger sisters were very sick and my baby caught the whooping cough, having caught cold by being passed about when the policemen were after me. The Lord spared her life and she got well.

“The cook’s cabin took fire, and a little time after the sea was so rough our main mast broke, and the sail went into the sea, next day they fixed the mast, we had a calm and the ship did not move back or forward, but rocked about. We had a Concert on the top deck and enjoyed ourselves. We had heavy fog very often so bad the Captain could not see where we were going, Brother Rider, the President’s counsel was talking to the Captain on the quarter deck and saw the fog lift up he said “What is that?” It was the breakers he saw, but the Captain did not answered, he sprang to the wheel and called, “About ship all hands to the Riggins,” soon the danger was over and the Captain said that in a short time all would have had a watery grave if the fog had not lifted, we were saved by providence.

“When we were on the river the boat took fire, and they carried large fiery sticks past the foot of my bed and threw them in the water.

“We landed in New York the 4th of July 1866, we anchored and saw many beautiful fire works, a ship was set on fire on the sea and with flames coming out of its many windows it was a great sight. Next day we went on the pier and then came another task, we had to pass a man that read our names off when we came to my name, as I was called Sarah Keep, and child, he said “Stop!” Where is your husband, and how do you know he is not here? “Stand Back!” he shouted, I stood back and all the young men passed, my old friend, Will Penny, came and ask me what was the matter, I told him and he told me to come with him and they would not know who he was, I went with him and all was well. We stayed in New York three weeks. My sister Lucy’s baby was born there, then came another task, my Father did not have enough money to take me on to the valley, I sold my wedding ring to buy my baby a pair of shoes, and a hat, and also to pay for an advertisement. I advertised to be a wet nurse, my Mother was to take my baby on to Zion, and I would follow. I went to the office and engaged at twenty dollars a month, when I was returned home I met my Father, he said he had been to the office of Brother Bullock and Thomas Taylor who was looking after the emigrant companies and they told him not to leave me there in a strange land if I had left my husband for the gospel, and as my Father didn’t have the money they said the church would take me and I could pay it back when I got to Zion and I had the money to do so. Father decided I could go on with him if I wanted to, but I thought I could save enough to pay my own way, I was very glad when it was time for the boat to leave. When we were on the train the wheels caught fire and we were pushed into another car as if we were sheep, for we were just emigrants.

“While crossing the plains with oxen teams the Cholera broke out, and about seventy one died, many were buried in a quilt or sheets, the wolves would howl around at night, and perhaps dig up the dead that were buried.

“One night about twenty five or thirty Indians came to camp, they were on the war path, it frightened us very much, for we were afraid we would surely be killed, they had scalps of women’s long hair hanging from their tomahawks, and their belts were filled with arrows and bows in their hands, they had a letter which they gave to the Captain to read, he called, is there anyone in camp who can read the Indian language, a young sister by the name of Emma who had left her husband and two little girls said “I can read the Indian Language.” She had learned to read it when her husband was a soldier, and he had taught her to read it, she read the letter, and was pleased the Indians, the Captain pitched a tent inside the ring of wagons, and fed them they sang all night, and followed us all the next day calling “We Want White Women,” at last they left us.

“When traveling the Captain would take my baby on his horse, and tell me to walk on, and the teamsters would pick me up, and take me in their wagon and they would ride on the tongue of the wagon, they would tell me to sing to them and they would walk rather than see me walk as I had sore feet. I used to wash my baby’s clothes in the streams when we camped, and the teamsters would tell me to dry my clothes by the fire, they let me bake my bread in the skillet after their baking was done. Sometimes I had only bread or small piece of bacon to nurse my baby on.

“I am thankful I am here, and I have learned what I came here for, I can say I do know that the Lord has been with me and give me more than I deserve, but he has promised “He that leaves Father and Mother, Husband or Wife for the gospel, shall receive a Hundred Fold.” I can now see there was work for me to do for the dead and the Lord has blessed and preserved my life many times to do this work. I am very thankful to him for it.

“I traveled first with Father and Mother, and two Sisters in Pratt’s Company, then Captain Inkley came to bring the sick in, and I came with his company I left my parents, and arrived in Salt Lake City at conference, the fifth or sixth of October 1866. In two weeks I hired out to a sister’s home to nurse her as she was sick. I got a cold in my eyes, and it was so terrible that I went to my sister Mary’s in Lehi until they were better. Brother David Buttars came there on business and told me he knew what would cure my eyes if I would do it. He told me Brother Brigham Young’s remedy. Was to dig down a little over a foot deep in the soil mold the soil and lay it on my eyes at night in a fine cloth, I did it and it healed my eyes in a week.

“Mr. Buttars came again and asked my sister and I to his daughter Marjory’s Wedding Supper. I went and when I was going home he wanted to go with me and carry the baby, he did so, and that night he ask me to become his wife, that was the pay he wanted for telling me what would cure my eyes, in less than three weeks we were married in my sister’s house by the Bishop’s counselor in Lehi, I was twenty six years old and had one child, and David was forty four and had five children. Sixteen months later I had my first baby girl, Sarah Isabelle two months later 15 Jun 1868 she died and was buried in the garden until David came home, then she had been dead eight days, David and I buried her ourselves in the graveyard at Lehi Utah.

“My husband had been to Clarkston to buy us a home, this was in June 1868, and in October 1868, we moved to Clarkston, Utah.

“That fall the grasshoppers were so bad that we cut up cow skin and made a rope which three of us dragged up and down the garden in order to make the grasshopper fly away, and keep them from cutting the grain. There were so many grasshoppers that when they were flying they would darken the sun.

“When we were on our way to Clarkston, we were just crossing the mountain top, and the tongue of the wagon broke, the horses and the cattle went off and were lost for five days travel time, during this time the mail coach with President John Taylor passed us and nearly tipped over, because we could not get out of the way, we started again for Clarkston and arrived at the end of October 1868, and I have lived here since.

“I was the first milliner in Clarkston, I made Straw hats, and straw braid, and straw trimmings for the hats. In 1869 my third daughter was born. Two more years we fought the grasshopper and crickets. In 1871 there were seven crowds of crickets and three crowds of grasshoppers that came and ate everything up. On the 15th of June 1871 my first boy, Charles, was born, and eight days after on the 23 of June 1871 the seagulls came and ate all the grasshoppers and crickets.

“I joined the Female society in 1869 at Clarkston, and was a teacher for many years. I was the President of the Primary for six years, and a teacher for about eighteen years. The first Prayer circle in Clarkston was in my home, I was very much delighted and it was kept there for three years and four months. Then it was moved to the New Tithing house. I was married to my husband David Buttars 16th December 1866 and was sealed to him in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Utah 14 December 1868.

Clarkston Ward Sisters: Annie Heggie, Marie Anderson, Sarah Buttar, Jane Godfrey, Hannah Thompson, Elizabeth Loosle

“In 1884 my husband took another wife. We lived in that Celestial order for twenty three years. I have worked in the Salt Lake Temple, and the Logan Temple for the dead. I have worked and paid for about two thousand names. I have had my second Endowments many years ago. I have seen and talked to Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses, who is buried in the Clarkston Cemetery, I am a member of the Camp of Daughter’s of pioneers named in his honor, I have planted flowers on his grave.

“I have been near drowning two or three times. Once on the ship and twice in America, once when I was crossing the Bear River Bridge with my husband and relatives, we were returning from doing temple work, the bridge broke and we all went into the river, I was laid upon the river bank for dead, being crushed with the broken timber, I regained my consciousness, that was on the 30th of May 1899.

“I have had nine children five girls and four boys, three are dead at the present time, Eight of them are married and have families of their own. I am now Eighty two years old. I am writing this in March 1923.

“Sarah Keep Buttars died 7 October 1935 at the age of ninety five. She was active until a few days before her death. She attended the Cache County Fair in September 1935 and won a prize for her Fancy Hand Work and the honor of being the oldest pioneer in Cache Valley attending the fair.

Sunday, 1 February 2026 by Sagacity

In re Cantu

Decision: In re Rebecca Cherie Cantu and Alejandro Cantu, Case No. 14-40254-JDP (Bankr. D. Idaho, 26 Aug. 2014)
Judge: Honorable Jim D. Pappas, United States Bankruptcy Judge
Counsel for Debtors: Paul Ross, Idaho Bankruptcy Law, Paul, Idaho
Chapter 7 Trustee: Gary L. Rainsdon, Twin Falls, Idaho
Trustee’s Counsel: Brett R. Cahoon and Daniel C. Green, Racine, Olsen, Nye, Budge & Bailey, Chtd., Pocatello, Idaho

Background

Rebecca and Alejandro Cantu filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition on 20 March 2014. In the months leading up to their filing, two creditors — NCO Financial and Bonneville Billing and Collections — had been garnishing their wages pursuant to state court judgments. NCO, collecting on student loans, garnished 15% of Ms. Cantu’s wages each pay period under federal law. Bonneville garnished an additional 10% under state law. Idaho only allows a maximum of 25% to be garnished from an individual’s wages. Over the 90-day preference period preceding the petition date, the two creditors combined had garnished a total of $1,536.93 from the Debtors’ paychecks.

On their amended Schedule B, Debtors listed the garnished funds as personal property and claimed $1,500 of that amount exempt under Idaho Code § 11-605(12) — a wage exemption statute enacted by the Idaho Legislature in 2010, and one that, as Judge Pappas noted, had never been interpreted by any court.

The Trustee’s Objections

The Chapter 7 Trustee filed two objections in sequence. The first, argued simply that the garnished funds were not “disposable earnings receivable” because they had already been paid to the creditors prior to the bankruptcy filing. When the Debtors amended their Schedule C to increase the claimed exemption from $1,086.53 to the statutory maximum of $1,500, the Trustee withdrew the first objection and filed a more detailed second objection through retained counsel.

The second objection raised two grounds. First, the Trustee argued the garnished funds were avoidable preferences under 11 U.S.C. § 547(b) — transfers made within 90 days of filing to specific creditors on account of antecedent debt — and that the Debtors were therefore barred from exempting them under § 522(g), which limits a debtor’s ability to exempt property recovered by the trustee to situations where the debtor could have exempted the property absent the transfer. Second, the Trustee contended that because the Debtors had received a benefit from the garnishments — reduction of their judgment debts — the funds had effectively been “paid” to them, and thus did not qualify as unpaid wages under Idaho Code § 11-605(12).

The Debtors’ Responses

This firm filed two responses on behalf of the Debtors, tracking the Trustee’s evolving objections.

On the statutory interpretation question, Debtors argued that Idaho Code § 11-605(12) means exactly what it says: the exemption applies to earnings that “have been earned but have not been paid to the individual.” The garnished funds were unquestionably earned by Ms. Cantu through her personal services, and they were never paid to her — they were diverted directly to her creditors via the sheriff. The statute does not require that funds be “receivable,” nor does it specify where the funds must be held. The Trustee’s position that the funds were “effectively paid” to the Debtors because they reduced outstanding debts stretched the statutory language beyond its plain meaning.

On the § 522(g) issue, Debtors argued that the garnishments were not voluntary transfers — they were compelled by court order — and that the funds had not been concealed, as they were fully disclosed on Schedule B and the Statement of Financial Affairs. Because the property could have been exempted under Idaho Code § 11-605(12) had it remained with the employer and not yet been paid, the Debtors were entitled to claim the exemption on any funds recovered by the Trustee under § 522(h).

The Court’s Ruling

Judge Pappas ruled in favor of the Trustee and sustained the objection, disallowing the exemption. The Court’s analysis turned entirely on the meaning of the phrase “have not been paid to the individual” in Idaho Code § 11-605(12).

The Court acknowledged that the statute had never been interpreted by any court since its enactment in 2010, and that the phrase “paid to the individual” was arguably ambiguous. However, the Court concluded that reading the statute in context — as required under Idaho rules of statutory construction — compelled the conclusion that the garnished wages had been paid.

The Court’s reasoning proceeded on several fronts:

From the employer’s perspective, the wages were indisputably paid. The employer transferred the full amount owed to Debtors — some directly to them, and the garnished portion to the sheriff on their account — satisfying its payroll obligation in full.

From the Debtors’ own perspective, the Court found the wages had likewise been paid. The garnished sums reduced the Debtors’ outstanding judgment debts, conferring a direct financial benefit. To hold otherwise, the Court noted, would potentially require employers to pay the garnished amounts twice — once to the sheriff, and again to the debtor following a successful exemption claim — a result the Idaho Legislature could not have intended.

The Court also rejected the Debtors’ reading as internally inconsistent with Idaho’s garnishment statutes. Idaho Code § 8-509(b) expressly directs an employer-garnishee to “pay” the earned wages to the sheriff for the creditor’s benefit. Treating those same wages as simultaneously “paid” for garnishment purposes and “unpaid” for exemption purposes would create an irreconcilable conflict between the two statutes. As the Court observed, while exemption statutes are to be construed liberally in favor of debtors, statutory language should not be “tortured” in the name of liberal construction.

Because it resolved the case on the § 11-605(12) issue, the Court declined to reach the Trustee’s alternative argument under § 522(g).

Why This Matters

1. A case of first impression on Idaho Code § 11-605(12). The Court explicitly noted that no prior case had interpreted this 2010 wage exemption statute. This decision remains the leading — and only — authority on its meaning and scope. Idaho practitioners advising debtors on wage garnishment situations should be aware of its limitations.

2. “Paid to the individual” means paid on the individual’s account, not just into their hands. The Court’s construction of the statute is broad: wages diverted to a creditor through garnishment are treated as paid for exemption purposes, even though the debtor never personally received them. Debtors who suffer pre-petition garnishments cannot use § 11-605(12) to recapture those funds in bankruptcy.

3. The interplay between § 547 preferences and § 522(g) exemptions is complex. Where a trustee seeks to avoid a pre-petition garnishment as a preference, the debtor’s ability to claim an exemption in the recovered funds depends on whether the property could have been exempted in the first instance. This case illustrates how critical it is to identify viable exemption authority before asserting the right to avoid a transfer under § 522(h).

4. Debtors should assert wage exemptions in state court before filing. The Court noted, in a footnote, that Idaho Code § 8-519 permitted the Debtors to have raised an exemption claim in state court at the time of the garnishment. No such claim was made. Practitioners should advise clients facing wage garnishment to promptly evaluate available exemptions under state law — before funds leave the employer’s hands.

5. Liberal construction has limits. Idaho courts construe exemption statutes in favor of debtors, but that principle does not authorize courts to rewrite statutory language. Where plain meaning and statutory context point clearly in one direction, liberal construction will not overcome them.

Full Decision: Available on PACER, Case No. 14-40254-JDP, Doc. 51 (Bankr. D. Idaho 26 Aug. 2014)

Exemption Decision Download

Chester and Maude

The Sugar Factory

The Cradle of American Trucking

The Fire

Plain City Will Consider Future of the Lumberyard

Milo and Gladys Ross

The Petition

Circle A Construction

The Petition Pages

Complete List of Signers

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Origins in Whaddon

The Gospel Comes to Whaddon

The Voyage of the Amazon, 1863

The Freighting Years, 1864–1866

Settling Salt Creek

Ann Comes to America, 1874

The First Years in Salt Creek

The Flood of 1884 and Ann’s Heroism

Firsts in Warren

Ann in Warren

A February Week in Logan, 1893

A Mission at Fifty-Six

The Children

The 70th Birthday, 1914

The Grasshoppers

The Golden Wedding, 1924

Final Years

Legacy

Source Documents

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Background

The Trustee’s Objection

The Debtors’ Brief

The Court’s Ruling

Why This Matters

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Background

The Trustee’s Objections

The Debtors’ Responses

The Court’s Ruling

Why This Matters

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